Details of proposed reforms for the 2028 Research Excellence Framework (REF) are published by UK funding agencies on 15 June. Here we summarise the key changes to submissions, assessment and weighting.
The REF is a national assessment of UK research held every six to seven years to determine the quality of research produced by higher education institutions, which is used to allocate about £2 billion in annual research funding that institutions can spend as they wish.
For REF 2021, more than 76,132 academics submitted at least one output across 28 units of assessment (UoA). Of the 185,594 research outputs assessed by expert panels, 41 per cent were deemed world-leading (4*) and 43 per cent judged outstanding (3*). Some 7,000 impact case studies and about 2,000 unit- and institutional-level environment statements were also submitted.
In REF 2028, just 50 per cent of a UoA will depend on research outputs, down from 60 per cent in 2021.
