REF Essentials

Research Excellence Framework, or REF, is a UK wide assessment of research quality based on the principle of assessment by peer review.

REF is organised into four Main Panels:

• A Medicine, Health and Life Sciences
• B Physical Sciences, Engineering and Mathematics
• C Social Sciences and
• D Arts and Humanities

with 34 sub-panels or Units of Assessment (UoAs).

Each panel and UoA is overseen by subject experts, appointed by the UK Funding Councils, who contribute to the development of the assessment criteria and carry out the assessment.

The outcomes of REF are used to determine how much funding is allocated to each University; for the University of Aberdeen this is approximately £15M per year.

REF can be thought of as one of the largest research grant applications that the University makes to the UK Funding Councils.

REF results have a long term impact, outcomes influence funding and reputation for several years, along with league tables and other metrics.

REF takes places approximately every seven years.

REF took place in 2014 and 2021, with the next exercise planned for 2029.

Previous exercises were called Research Assessment Exercises or RAE, these ran between in 1986 and 2008.

There will be four main panels and 34 units of assessment, these will be the same as they were in REF2021.

We do not need to submit to every unit of assessment. In consultation with Schools, the internal REF Strategy group will decide which units of assessment we will submit to.

For each UoA submitted there will be three assessment elements, the assessment elements are weighted to reflect how much each element will contribute to the overall score for a unit.

The three elements are:

1. People, Culture and Environment, 25%;
2. Contribution to Knowledge and Understanding, 50%; and
3. Engagement and Impact, 25%.

These replace the previous assessment elements ‘Outputs’, ‘Impact’ and ‘Environment’, which were split 60/25/15 respectively.

In accordance with the REF guidance, we consider eligible staff to be those who:

• Have a primary employment function to undertake either ‘research only’ or ‘teaching and research’ and, in the case of ‘research only’ meet the REF criteria of independent researchers.
• Have a contract of employment of 0.2 FTE or greater
• Are on the payroll of the University of Aberdeen for the relevant HESA data submission periods

More information about staff eligibility and research independence can be found in our Code of Practice (login required).

The three assessment elements in REF 2029 are

• People, Culture and Environment
• Contribution to Knowledge and Understanding
• Engagement and Impact

In People, Culture and Environment (PCE), Institutions submit a narrative response at institutional level and at unit of assessment level. The narrative statements provide information about the activity of the institution or the unit during the REF period. In REF 2029 PCE assessment will assess how an institution enables a positive research culture, under five factors, Strategy; Responsibility; Connectivity; Inclusivity; and Development. The PCE submission will also include details of Research Income and Postgraduate completions.

In Contribution to Knowledge and Understanding, Institutions submit Research outputs that represent excellence research produced between 01 January 2021 and 31 December 2028, along with a narrative statement. REF accepts a wide variety of output types however some outputs also need to meet the REF open access requirements. Open access requirements apply to Journal articles and published conference proceedings with an ISSN, these outputs need to be published as open access with an appropriate creative commons licence to be eligible for REF. The narrative element offers an evidence-based description of the wider contribution to knowledge and understanding in the disciplinary area and explains how the outputs submitted are representative of the research and researchers in the disciplinary area. 

In the Engagement and Impact assessment element institutions submit Impact case studies along with a narrative statement. Impact case studies will outline the changes and benefits that research has had on society, economy, public policy and practice, environment and quality of life.  Impact Case studies will be supported by quantitative and qualitative evidence, underpinned by Research outcomes. REF 2029, will assess impact that took place between 2021 and 2028 and impact described in the case studies will be assessed in terms of ‘rigour, reach and significance’. The narrative element will allow institutions to detail their approaches to maximising the impact of research.