What is the REF 2021 and why is it important?  

The REF is the national system for assessing the quality of research in HE Institutions in the UK. The REF takes place approximately every six years with the last REF taking place in 2014. See our REF 2014 results here.  

The framework is used by the four UK higher education funding bodies (Research England, the Scottish Funding Council, the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales, and the Department for the Economy, Northern Ireland) to assess the quality of research and to inform the distribution of research funding, which is around £2 billion per year, to UK universities. 

How is the REF conducted?  

Each university in the UK is required to make a submission to the REF. Submissions can be made to 34 subject based units of assessment (UoA). Each university can choose which of the UoAs it makes a submission to and each  UoA submission is assessed on three elements:  

1. Quality of research outputs - which can include publications, performances, exhibitions, designs, artifacts and reports (accounting for 60% of the assessment) 
2. Impact of research – its effect on, change, or benefit to the economy, society, policy, culture and quality of life (accounting for 25% of the assessment) 
3. Research environment – an institution’s research strategy, research facilities, opportunities for collaboration and environment, including research income and research degrees awarded (accounting for 15% of the assessment)

The review of each submission is conducted by an expert panel, there is one for each of the 34 subject based units of assessment, which are overseen by four overarching panels.  

What do the results mean for universities?  

The REF has three main objectives:  

• Provide accountability for public investment in research and produce evidence of the benefits of this investment –  this ensures that the work we are conducting is beneficial to society and the wider world.  
• Provide benchmarking information, for use in the higher education sector and for public information – all of the research we conduct is aligned to our RKE strategy, however the results of the REF provide an external assessment of this work and ensure that our focus remains on improving and building on the already existing outputs and impact.  
• Inform the selective allocation of funding for research – some of our research funding comes from successful bids to research funding, both nationally and internationally. However, the results of the REF will determine how much we receive from the four national funding bodies.