BU Research Blog

The next Research Excellence Framework (REF) mock exercise opens today. Following the success of our REF21 submission, we have ambitious plans to include the majority of eligible staff in the submission, whilst increasing the quality of the research submitted.

The 2026 exercise will be our third formal mock exercise in our preparations for REF 2029.

Anyone who conducts or supports research is invited to nominate up to five research outputs to the exercise. We encourage the nomination of a diverse range of output types, including, but not limited to, journal articles, conference proceedings, books, chapters, films, performances, compositions, digital artefacts and any other output which is the product of original research, which has been published since 1 January 2021.

Outputs can be nominated for review between 26 May and 22 June 2026. Guidance on how to nominate outputs on BRIAN can be found on the REF 2026 Mock exercise page.

Points to note:

• Outputs can be nominated to more than one Unit of Assessment (UoA) for review. Nominators should ensure that outputs are reviewed by all relevant BU UoAs where the output meets the REF UoA descriptors
• Outputs that have previously been reviewed by a UoA as part of a previous mock exercise should not be nominated to that UoA Individuals can view the 2023 and 2024 mock exercises in BRIAN to check which of their outputs have already been reviewed.

Nominated outputs will be allocated to a panel of reviewers, and authors will be able to receive feedback on the overall shape of their outputs profile and advice on how to strengthen and position their future outputs.

More information on the 2026 mock exercise can be found on the REF 2026 Mock exercise page.

For queries relating to the mock exercise, including requests for access to additional UoA exercises on BRIAN, please contact REF@bournemouth.ac.uk.

For advice on output(s) selection and if an output meets the UoA descriptors, please contact the relevant UoA Team(s).