Anew study on the REF 2021 impact case studies demonstrates the diversity and significance of UK research impacts both nationally and globally, and the unique, complex pathways from the underpinning research through to impact.
In the REF 2021 exercise, UK institutions submitted 6,781 impact case studies, most of which are publicly available in the REF database. They showcase the diverse impacts of UK research beyond academia and provide a rich resource for analysis.
A wide-ranging study conducted by RAND Europe, Different Angles and Electric Data Solutions for Research England and UKRI, analysed these case studies, building on previous analysis of the 2014 REF case studies conducted by King’s College London and Digital Science in 2015.
The study found that UK research has had a significant and diverse societal impact. Using topic modelling – a natural language processing approach – the study team was able to cluster similar case studies into 79 “impact topics.” This highlighted the diverse societal impacts of UK research which covered areas such as cancer diagnostics and therapy to pollution and air quality.
