In the Summer of 2023, we launched the Initial Decisions for the Research Excellence Framework. In December 2023, in response to input to our Initial Decisions consultation, we published a series of conclusions and importantly included an extension of the assessment period until 2029 to allow more time for institutions to prepare for changes. We have recently published our revised timetable.
We invited further comments on the proposal to expand the People, Culture and Environment (PCE) element of the exercise. While input received from the community endorsed the expanded element, concerns over how best to design this aspect of the assessment have been raised, along with a strong desire to pilot approaches, and for careful and thoughtful selection of indicators so that they do not also impose additional burden on institutions or create unintended behaviours or hierarchies.
The Research Excellence Framework has always been developed in collaboration with the sector, as a shared endeavour where concerns are settled and best-fit solutions are found through iterative dialogue. I talk about that principle in a blog I wrote for Wonkhe in late 2023.
In line with our approach to co-creation with the sector, and responding to the input we have received, we announced, in January, that following the extension to the process for the next REF, the four higher education funding bodies had agreed to run a PCE pilot. This pilot is to test the indicators we have commissioned Technopolis and CRAC-Vitae to co-create with the community.
