Consistent with Research England guidelines, a process has been set up to ensure that academic and research staff are treated fairly as the University prepares its submission to the 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF2021).
Staff who are eligible to be submitted to REF2021 can now confidentially disclose any individual circumstances that have affected their ability to engage in productive research since January 2014.
Under REF rules, there are minimum requirements for the number of research outputs that individual researchers and academic groupings (called Units of Assessment) need to submit to REF2021.
The University’s confidential procedure allows individuals to request that the University considers their disclosed circumstances when preparing its final REF2021 submission to Research England. This could result in that minimum requirement being removed or reduced for individuals or Units of Assessment.
Eligible staff will be supported and encouraged – but not required – to disclose any relevant circumstances via this process.
There is more detail on the University’s REF web pages.
You can also read the University’s REF2021 Code of Practice, which has just been approved by Research England. This sets out how the University will prepare and make its submission to REF2021 in a fair and transparent way, in line with Research England's requirements and the University's own policies and values.
The REF is an evaluation which assesses the research of British higher education institutions and its impact on society. All publicly-funded universities take part. You can online.
