REF 2021 – stocktake exercises

Research assessment

With the publication of the Stern Review last summer and the funding bodies’ Second Consultation on the REF earlier this year, there’s been a lot of discussion at BU and across the sector around REF 2021 lately. Despite this, and indeed because of this, we’re still none the wiser as to what the next REF will look like. Like many other universities, we are progressing with our internal preparations whilst we await the publication of the initial decisions from the funding bodies’ in response to the feedback to their consultation (predicted to be later this year).

One of the ways BU is preparing is by running a stocktake exercise to see what outputs academic staff have published since 1 January 2014 and what potential impact BU research is having. Not only will this provide a summary of progress c. half way through the REF assessment period, it will also enable resources to be allocated to support further high-quality outputs and to accelerate research impact.

The stocktake exercise is being run in two cohorts:

  • Cohort 1 takes place this summer and involves UOAs – 2, 3, 4, 12, 22/23, 25, 34 and 36.
  • Cohort 2 takes place this autumn and involves UOAs – 11, 17 (archaeology), 17 (geography and environmental studies), 19, 20, 26 and 29.

The process will be the same for each cohort. On the outputs side, we are changing from individuals self-nominating for their inclusion in the exercise to a model where all academic staff (with a research-only or a teaching and research contract) are automatically included. This ensures the exercise is fully inclusive whilst reducing the burden on individual academic staff. In terms of impact, we are changing from colleagues writing impact case studies to inviting them to attend a meeting and deliver a short informal presentation of their research, its impact and their plans for generating further impact, followed by a discussion with the panel. This is linked to the launch of the new impact tracker in BRIAN.

The stocktake exercises are designed to be fully inclusive, positive and developmental. Further information about the REF is available on the Research Blog’s REF webpage.

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