If you’re a researcher your big question is whether or not you will be submitted to the next research excellence framework (REF).
And the answer, as of today, is no.
The awful idea of being “REFable” or not will have no salience next time round. There’ll be no requirement that any of your work is submitted – but the fact you exist and have research responsibilities counts towards the volume measure that determines how many outputs and case studies that can be submitted.
And of course, you’ll suspect that the quality of those outputs – as judged by your peers – are the single most important thing that determines your departmental REF score. And you’d be wrong – outputs will count for just 50 per cent of results, with measures of impact and the research environment taking up the remainder.
