A structured narrative submission to the REF describing how research from a UK institution has produced demonstrable effects, change or benefit beyond academia.

ByCASRAI Editorial Board

· Last updated 21 May 2026

Examples

Worked examples

Is an instance
A case study documents how research on air pollution informed national clean-air legislation.
Is an instance
A study traces public-health research influence on NICE clinical guidelines, with named corroborators.

Counter-examples

Looks similar, but isn't

Not an instance
A case study lists media mentions without linking them to underpinning research outputs.
Not an instance
A case study claims impact in an area where the submitting unit produced no qualifying research.

Editorial commentary

Each REF impact case study is a four-to-five-page document covering: a summary of the impact, the underpinning research, references to that research, details of the impact (including evidence and corroborators), and sources to corroborate the impact. They must be linked to research carried out at the submitting institution that meets a quality threshold (at least 2*). Case studies are scored by sub-panels for reach and significance. The REF impact case study database is publicly searchable and constitutes one of the largest collections of evidence-based research-impact narratives globally.

References

REF 2021 impact case study database (results.ref.ac.uk/Submissions/Impact). King's College London and Digital Science 'Nature, Scale and Beneficiaries of Research Impact'.

Also known as

Impact case study · REF ICS

Machine-readable encodings

Use in your systems

JATS XML <role> element

xml

<role vocab="credit"
      vocab-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/"
      vocab-term="REF impact case study"
      vocab-term-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/ref-impact-case-study" />

Schema.org DefinedTerm (JSON-LD)

json

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "DefinedTerm",
  "@id": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/ref-impact-case-study",
  "name": "REF impact case study",
  "identifier": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/ref-impact-case-study",
  "description": "A structured narrative submission to the REF describing how research from a UK institution has produced demonstrable effects, change or benefit beyond academia.",
  "inDefinedTermSet": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/domain/responsible-assessment#set",
  "url": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/ref-impact-case-study",
  "sameAs": [
    "Impact case study",
    "REF ICS"
  ],
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "publisher": {
    "@id": "https://casrai.org/#organization"
  },
  "dateModified": "2026-05-21T02:22:55",
  "inLanguage": "en"
}

Referenced across the research world

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