REF 2021 was delayed by one year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It assessed 76,132 academic staff across 157 UK higher education institutions, with submissions to 34 units of assessment. The weighting of the three elements was outputs 60%, impact 25%, environment 15%. REF 2021 introduced changes from REF 2014 such as a requirement to submit all eligible staff (decoupling outputs from individual researchers), an increase in the impact weighting from 20% to 25%, and explicit guidance on responsible use of metrics aligning with the Metric Tide report.
References
- ref.ac.uk/2021. Research England 'Results and submissions' 2022. Times Higher Education REF 2021 analysis.