CASRAI Dictionary

Author: MCP Service

  • EOSC Association Membership Tiers Explained

    The EOSC Association is the Brussels-based non-profit that governs the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) on behalf of its research-community stakeholders, operating alongside the European Commission and the EOSC Steering Board under a tripartite governance model. Membership is organised into legal tiers — full Member, Observer, and country-level Mandated Organisation — each carrying different voting rights, obligations, and access to the Association’s Task Forces and General Assembly.

    The EOSC Association is defined by the European Commission as “an international non-profit organisation under Belgian law that aims to provide a single voice for advocacy and representation of the broader EOSC stakeholder community.” Understanding exactly what membership confers — and what it does not — matters now because the Association’s funding relationship with the European Union is itself under review ahead of the next multiannual research framework.

    What is the EOSC Association?

    The EOSC Association was formed on 29 July 2020 by four founding members and has since grown to around 250 Members and Observers. It exists to jointly deliver the objectives set out in the Memorandum of Understanding signed with the European Union on 30 July 2021, which formally established the EOSC as a co-programmed European Partnership.

    Its remit is representation and coordination, not service delivery. The Association does not operate the EOSC’s technical infrastructure itself — that role sits with the EOSC EU Node, procured by the European Commission and launched in October 2024 as the reference node of the wider EOSC Federation. The Association instead channels stakeholder input, steers investment priorities through its Task Forces, and holds a seat in the tripartite governance structure alongside the Commission and the EOSC Steering Board.

    What are the EOSC Association membership tiers?

    Membership is not a single status. The Association’s statutes define distinct categories with different rights, and institutions considering joining need to know which one applies to them before they apply.

    Tier Voting rights Who it suits Example
    Member Yes — one Delegate per Member in the General Assembly Research-performing, research-funding, or service-providing organisations with a substantial stake in EOSC ETH Zürich, CSIC, Inria
    Observer No — one Representative, non-voting Organisations building a relationship with EOSC before committing to full membership, including some outside the EU/Associated Country area Emerging national research infrastructures
    Mandated Organisation Yes, as national representative One Member per EU Member State or Horizon Europe Associated Country, appointed to represent national interests; EIROforum may also mandate one representative SURF (Netherlands), CESNET (Czech Republic), DeiC (Denmark)

    To qualify for any tier, an applicant must be a legal entity constituted under national law or an intergovernmental organisation under an international treaty — government departments and ministries are explicitly excluded. Applicants must also:

    • Confirm in writing that they embrace the Association’s vision and values;
    • Demonstrate a substantial and significant interest in, or contribution to, EOSC;
    • Fall into at least one of four categories: research-funding organisation, research-performing organisation, service-providing organisation, or other organisation;
    • Hold a presence in an EU Member State, a Horizon Europe Associated Country, or another Framework Programme-associated country (Members only — Observers may sit outside this area).

    How is the EOSC Association governed?

    The General Assembly is the supreme authority of the Association, composed of one voting Delegate per Member and one non-voting Representative per Observer. It elects the President and Board of Directors at its annual meeting, and a Secretary General runs day-to-day operations through the Secretariat.

    Above the Association itself sits the EOSC tripartite governance structure, which meets roughly twice a year and comprises three parties: the European Commission, the EOSC Steering Board (drawn from EU Member States and Horizon Europe Associated Countries), and the EOSC Association representing the research community. This structure is currently addressing what the European Commission describes as “options for the governance, operations and financing of EOSC after the end of the current funding framework” — a direct signal that post-2027 continuity is not yet settled.

    Recent EOSC Steering Board opinion papers add texture to this picture: a 17 December 2025 paper on strengthening European sovereignty in research data called for reinforcing the EOSC Federation and embedding legal and operational clarity, while a 26 November 2025 paper addressed FAIR-object quality assessment and protection against data pollution and intrusion. Neither changes membership mechanics directly, but both signal where the Association’s Task Forces are likely to focus next.

    How does EOSC Association membership interlock with Horizon Europe and FP10?

    Horizon Europe’s open-science provisions require funded projects to make research data findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable — the FAIR principles that EOSC is built to operationalise as a shared federated environment rather than a patchwork of institutional repositories. Being an EOSC Association Member or Mandated Organisation gives an institution a formal channel to shape how those FAIR obligations are implemented in practice, through Task Force participation and General Assembly votes, rather than simply complying with requirements set elsewhere.

    This channel matters more, not less, as the European Commission negotiates the successor to Horizon Europe — provisionally referred to as FP10 — for the 2028-2034 multiannual financial framework. Because EOSC’s Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA, version 1.3, finalised in 2024) and its funding partnership were built around the Horizon Europe programming period, the tripartite governance’s own post-2027 financing review is effectively a preview of what FP10 negotiations will need to resolve for EOSC specifically. Institutions weighing membership now are, in effect, weighing a seat at that table before the terms of the next framework are fixed.

    The EOSC Federation itself continues to expand independently of this funding question: fourteen new candidate nodes joined in the most recent expansion round, broadening the Federation’s thematic and geographic coverage beyond the original EOSC EU Node.

    Common questions about EOSC Association membership

    What does EOSC stand for?

    EOSC stands for the European Open Science Cloud, an EU-recognised initiative to build a federated, multi-disciplinary environment where researchers can publish, find, and reuse data, tools, and services under FAIR principles. The EOSC Association is the legal body that governs it on behalf of the research community, distinct from the technical infrastructure itself.

    What is the EOSC Federation?

    The EOSC Federation is the network of interconnected data repositories, research infrastructures, e-infrastructures, and service providers — organised into “nodes” — that collectively deliver EOSC’s technical capability. The EOSC EU Node, launched in October 2024, is its reference node, with additional candidate nodes joining in successive expansion rounds.

    Who can join the EOSC Association?

    Any legal entity — a research-performing, research-funding, or service-providing organisation, or an intergovernmental body — with a substantial interest in EOSC and a presence in an EU Member State or Horizon Europe Associated Country can apply. Government ministries and departments are explicitly excluded from membership.

    What do EOSC Association members actually get?

    Full Members get a voting Delegate in the General Assembly, eligibility to stand for the Board of Directors, and direct participation in Task Forces that steer EOSC investment priorities. Mandated Organisations additionally carry formal national representation, giving their country a single coordinated voice inside the Association’s governance.

    What this means for institutions considering membership

    For research-performing institutions, service providers, and funders in the EU or a Horizon Europe Associated Country, EOSC Association membership is a governance decision, not a technical one: it buys a vote in how the federated data infrastructure your researchers already have FAIR obligations under gets built and funded. The Mandated Organisation route matters specifically for institutions in countries where no organisation currently holds that national seat — it is a single-per-country allocation, so timing and internal coordination with national research-funding bodies is a real constraint, not a formality.

    The open question institutions cannot outsource is the financing one. Because the tripartite governance is actively reviewing EOSC’s operating model beyond the current Horizon Europe funding period, and because FP10 negotiations for 2028-2034 are unresolved, the practical value of a Board seat or Task Force role secured today depends partly on decisions still to be made in Brussels. Institutions with a genuine stake in EOSC’s direction have more reason to secure that seat before those decisions are finalised than after.

    For research administrators coordinating an institution’s broader participation in EU-funded infrastructure and standards work, see CASRAI’s research administration resources.

  • Horizon Europe Missions: Five Areas Explained

    Horizon Europe missions are five large-scale, cross-cutting research and innovation portfolios — cancer, climate adaptation, healthy oceans, climate-neutral cities, and soil health — each carrying a measurable, time-bound target for 2030. Rather than funding a single discipline, each mission pulls projects from across Horizon Europe’s thematic clusters and blends them with national, regional and private co-investment to hit one public goal.

    A Horizon Europe mission is a portfolio of research, innovation and policy actions, governed by a dedicated Mission Board, that is funded through Pillar II and structured around a single measurable societal target rather than a single scientific field.

    What are Horizon Europe missions and where do they sit in the programme?

    EU Missions were introduced as a genuine novelty of the 2021–2027 framework programme — commonly nicknamed FP9 — and did not exist in this form under Horizon 2020. Under Regulation (EU) 2021/695, missions are programmed within Pillar II, “Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness”, but they may also draw on actions from other parts of Horizon Europe and from complementary Union funding streams.

    Each mission is steered by a Mission Board of around 15 independent experts who propose the targets, milestones and implementation timeline. This is the single most useful distinction for institutional staff: a cluster is a thematic grouping of Pillar II funding (there are six), while a mission is a target-driven portfolio that cuts across clusters and pulls in complementary funding to reach one outcome.

    What are the five Horizon Europe mission areas?

    Horizon Europe funds exactly five missions, each with its own board, implementation plan and public-facing platform. All five share a 2030 target horizon and were designed with input from citizens, researchers and policymakers before being written into the first Horizon Europe work programmes.

    Mission Core 2030 target Notable early funding signal
    Cancer Improve the lives of more than 3 million people through prevention, cure and quality of life, aligned with Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan €378.2 million allocated to Cancer Mission calls in 2021–2023
    Adaptation to Climate Change Support at least 150 European regions and communities in becoming climate-resilient Delivered via the Climate-ADAPT knowledge platform and national ERA hubs
    Restore our Ocean and Waters Protect and restore the health of marine and freshwater ecosystems Linked to a carbon-neutral, circular blue economy target
    Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities 100 EU cities (plus 12 in associated countries) climate-neutral by 2030, as replication hubs for all EU cities by 2050 Delivered through the NetZeroCities platform
    A Soil Deal for Europe Establish 100 living labs and lighthouses driving healthy-soil transition Delivered through the Mission Soil Platform

    Every mission publishes its own implementation plan, which sets out sub-targets, expected impact pathways and the indicators projects must report against — these plans, not the headline goal alone, are the document research offices should read before drafting a proposal.

    How do mission work programmes turn targets into calls?

    Mission targets do not become funding opportunities automatically. Each mission’s implementation plan feeds into the biennial Horizon Europe Work Programme, where the target is broken down into “destinations” and, beneath those, individual “topics” — the actual calls for proposals published on the EU Funding & Tenders Portal.

    • Implementation plan sets the mission-level target, milestones and expected impact.
    • The biennial work programme translates that plan into a “destination” — a themed cluster of calls for the two-year period.
    • Each destination is broken into “topics”, which specify the challenge, expected outcomes, scope and indicative budget per project.
    • Consortia submit proposals against a specific topic; awarded grant agreements are then tagged to the parent mission in CORDIS.

    This destinations-and-topics structure is why the same mission can appear inside more than one cluster’s work programme chapter in a given call round — the Cancer Mission, for example, draws topics from the Health cluster while the Cities Mission draws from Climate, Energy and Mobility, alongside dedicated mission-only calls.

    What should research offices track for mission-linked reporting?

    Mission-linked grants carry reporting obligations beyond the standard Horizon Europe periodic and final report. Research offices should build mission tracking into their grants-management workflow at award stage, not at reporting deadline.

    • Mission tag verification. Confirm the grant agreement’s work programme “destination” code maps to the correct mission in CORDIS, since misclassified projects distort institutional impact reporting.
    • Impact-pathway indicators. Each mission defines its own indicator set — soil-health metrics via the Mission Soil Platform, city-level KPIs via NetZeroCities, cancer-outcome metrics tied to the Beating Cancer Plan — and beneficiaries must report against these alongside standard deliverables.
    • Co-funding disclosure. Because missions blend Horizon Europe funding with national, regional or private contributions, offices must track and disclose non-EU co-investment tied to the same mission target.
    • Platform registration. Living-lab and lighthouse projects under the Soil and Cities missions typically require registration on the relevant EU platform in addition to standard grant reporting.

    Institutions that treat mission reporting as identical to standard Horizon Europe reporting under-report their own impact contribution, since mission indicators are not captured by the generic project reporting template.

    Answer-first questions on Horizon Europe missions

    What are the five EU missions?

    The five EU Missions under Horizon Europe are Cancer, Adaptation to Climate Change, Restore our Ocean and Waters, Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities, and A Soil Deal for Europe. Each targets a measurable 2030 outcome and is governed by its own Mission Board, which sets the implementation plan feeding the biennial work programme.

    Which pillar of Horizon Europe are missions programmed under?

    Missions are programmed within Pillar II, “Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness”, per Regulation (EU) 2021/695. They may also draw on complementary actions from other parts of Horizon Europe and other Union funding programmes, which is why mission calls surface across multiple clusters rather than in one standalone budget line.

    Can UK-based researchers apply to Horizon Europe mission calls?

    The UK re-associated to Horizon Europe in 2024, restoring eligibility for UK-based applicants to apply to Horizon Europe calls, including mission-linked topics, on the same terms as EU member state participants, subject to the specific eligibility conditions published in each call topic.

    How often is the Horizon Europe missions work programme updated?

    Horizon Europe work programmes — including mission-specific destinations — are adopted on a biennial cycle, meaning mission targets are re-translated into fresh calls roughly every two years, with interim amendments possible when the European Commission adjusts budget or scope.

    Implications for institutional strategy

    For research offices, the practical distinction that matters is not “mission versus cluster” in the abstract but which reporting obligations attach to which grant. A project funded through a mission destination inherits both the standard Horizon Europe reporting template and a mission-specific indicator set — treating the two as interchangeable is the most common institutional compliance gap identified in mission-linked awards.

    As the current 2021–2027 programme runs toward its close and the Commission finalises the successor framework programme covering 2028–2034 — proposed at a substantially larger headline budget — the five mission areas described here remain the reference structure for any institution still reporting against live Horizon Europe mission grants, regardless of how the next programme is eventually shaped.

  • REF 2029 Academic Employment Uncertainty for Contract Staff

    REF 2029’s decision to weaken output portability, then partially reverse that decision after a three-month pause in late 2025, has left fixed-term and early-career researchers unsure whether published work will count towards their next job. A five-year portability window now applies to long-form outputs such as monographs, but shorter outputs generally stay with the institution that supported them — a “half in, half out” compromise that unions and sector commentators say still leaves contract staff exposed.

    The Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2029 is the seventh national exercise assessing the quality of research produced by UK higher education institutions, run jointly by the UK’s four higher education funding bodies, with submissions due in autumn 2028.

    What changed in REF 2029’s portability rules?

    REF 2029’s original proposal effectively ended portability: outputs would stay attached to the institution that employed the researcher when the work was produced, even after that researcher left. This was designed to stop institutions “poaching” research-active staff shortly before a census date purely to inflate a submission.

    Following the 2025 pause, the REF team confirmed on 10 December 2025 that long-form outputs — principally monographs — would carry a five-year portability window, meaning a researcher can take these specific outputs to a new institution for up to five years from publication. Shorter outputs remain governed by the decoupling principle: an institution can still submit work by a researcher who has since departed. The REF team also reinstated a recommended maximum of five outputs per researcher, having earlier proposed removing any minimum.

    Element REF 2021 REF 2029 (post-pause, Dec 2025)
    Outputs / Contributions to Knowledge and Understanding weighting 60% 55%
    Impact / Engagement and Impact weighting 25% 25%
    Environment / Strategy, People and Research Environment weighting 15% 20%
    Output portability for long-form work Full portability 5-year window (monographs)
    Output portability for standard outputs Full portability Decoupled from researcher
    Recommended output cap per researcher No fixed cap 5 (reinstated)

    Why was REF 2029 paused in 2025 — and what resumed?

    Research England, on behalf of the four UK funding bodies, confirmed a three-month pause in REF 2029’s criteria-setting process from September 2025. UKRI stated the pause was needed “to take stock and ensure alignment with the UK government’s priorities and vision for higher education.” The pause followed sustained pushback over the proposed end to output portability: in Times Higher Education on 23 September 2025, scholars argued that breaking the link between researchers and their outputs “harms academic mobility and disciplinary excellence.”

    Criteria setting resumed on 10 December 2025, with the REF team publishing revised guidance covering portability, output caps, and the renamed Strategy, People and Research Environment (SPRE) element. The SPRE weighting is split 60% institution-level statement and 40% unit-level statement, replacing the single Environment statement used in REF 2021.

    How does this affect fixed-term and early-career researchers?

    Fixed-term and early-career researchers are disproportionately exposed because their career currency is recent published output, and they move institutions more frequently than staff on permanent contracts. Under REF 2029’s decoupling principle, a researcher who leaves a post before the next census period may find that shorter-form outputs they produced stay credited to the former employer, with no guarantee the new institution can submit the same work.

    REF 2029 also introduces a substantive-link test for counting outputs from staff on part-time or non-standard contracts: at least 0.2 FTE and 12 months of contracted employment with a documented “research expectation.” Guidance does not require institutions to prove that time, funding or workload relief was actually provided to support that research — a gap flagged by commentators writing for Wonkhe in December 2025, who noted the term “research expectation” “remains vague” and can amount to “little more than a nominal clause.”

    A peer-reviewed analysis published in Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers (Wiley) goes further, warning that “the growing uncertainties around REF 2029 are likely to foster a drift towards greater reliance on metrics and procedural compliance” — a dynamic that tends to disadvantage staff without secure, long-term contracts who cannot easily demonstrate institutional “sustainability.”

    • Researchers negotiating a move should ask prospective employers directly whether specific outputs will be portable under the five-year monograph window or excluded under decoupling.
    • Contract length and FTE now matter for REF eligibility, not just for pay and pension — a role below 0.2 FTE or under 12 months may not generate a countable “significant responsibility for research” record in HESA data.
    • The reinstated five-output cap changes competitive dynamics: fewer, stronger outputs may now carry more weight than a large back-catalogue built across several employers.

    What have unions and sector bodies said?

    The University and College Union (UCU), the main trade union representing UK academic and research staff, has for several REF cycles argued that assessment periods create incentives for institutions to concentrate research-active contracts around census dates rather than offer secure, long-term posts — a pattern that REF 2029’s shift to HESA-derived staff volumes was partly designed to reduce, since submissions no longer require institutions to name individual staff.

    Russell Group universities issued a joint statement on 10 December 2025 welcoming the resumption of criteria setting, while a Wonkhe analysis the same day observed that REF 2029 “talks about people again” through SPRE but that “early career labour is still hard to see” in how research contribution is actually counted. Research Professional News reported that the reinstated five-output cap and monograph portability window were the two concessions the sector had pushed hardest for during the pause.

    Common questions on REF 2029 employment uncertainty

    What are the key changes for REF 2029?

    REF 2029 rebalances weightings toward Strategy, People and Research Environment (up to 20%) and away from outputs (down to 55%), replaces individual staff submission with HESA-derived staff volume, reinstates a five-output cap per researcher, and grants five-year portability only to long-form outputs such as monographs.

    Why has REF 2029 been paused?

    Research England paused REF 2029’s criteria-setting process for three months from September 2025 following sector concern over the proposed end to output portability, stating the pause would allow the funding bodies to “take stock and ensure alignment” with government priorities before finalising guidance.

    Are REF outputs portable?

    Only partially. REF 2029 grants a five-year portability window to long-form outputs like monographs when a researcher changes institution. Shorter, standard outputs are generally decoupled — they can still be submitted by the former employer even after the researcher has left.

    Why is REF 2029 important for research careers?

    REF outcomes shape roughly £2 billion a year in England’s quality-related research funding allocation, so how outputs, portability and staff volume are counted directly affects hiring, promotion and contract-renewal decisions — making REF 2029’s rules a material factor in academic job security, not just an institutional accounting exercise.

    What should contract staff and institutions do now?

    For fixed-term and early-career staff, the practical response is to treat portability status as a standard question in job negotiations, alongside salary and workload — not an afterthought discovered after a move. Institutions preparing REF 2029 codes of practice should document, in writing, how “research expectation” is defined for non-standard contracts, given that ambiguity here is precisely what commentators have flagged as the mechanism through which precarity goes uncounted.

    The debate is unlikely to close cleanly. REF 2029’s guidance remains subject to further sector consultation ahead of the autumn 2028 submission, and the five-year monograph window will itself need testing against real career moves before its effect on mobility is clear. What is already established is that portability is no longer a settled default in UK research assessment — it is now a negotiated, output-type-specific rule that early-career and fixed-term staff need to understand before, not after, they change jobs.

  • What Is REF 2029? A Plain-English Explainer for New Research Staff

    REF 2029 is the UK’s next Research Excellence Framework exercise — the national, peer-review-based assessment that determines how roughly £2 billion a year in public research funding is allocated to UK universities. Submissions are due in autumn 2028, with results published in December 2029.

    The Research Excellence Framework (REF) is the system the four UK higher education funding bodies use to assess the quality of research produced by UK universities and other higher education providers, and to inform block-grant research funding decisions accordingly.

    What Is REF 2029?

    REF 2029 is the fourth full cycle of the Research Excellence Framework, following REF 2014, REF 2021, and their predecessor, the Research Assessment Exercise. It was originally scheduled as “REF 2028” but was renamed and extended following a December 2023 policy decision, moving the results date back to December 2029.

    Research England manages the exercise on behalf of all four UK higher education funding bodies: Research England (covering England), the Scottish Funding Council, Medr — Wales’ Commission for Tertiary Education and Research — and the Department for the Economy, Northern Ireland. Their shared aim, carried over from previous cycles, is to secure a world-class, dynamic and responsive research base across UK higher education.

    Who Does REF 2029 Apply To?

    REF 2029 applies to every UK higher education provider that receives public research funding and chooses to make a submission. Submissions are organised by discipline into Units of Assessment (UoAs), each reviewed by an expert sub-panel sitting under one of four main panels covering the sciences, engineering, social sciences, and arts and humanities.

    The biggest structural change for first-time submitters: REF 2029 decouples research outputs from named individual staff. Under REF 2021, institutions submitted a set number of outputs per named staff member. Under REF 2029, an institution’s total research volume is calculated automatically from Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) staff data — specifically, staff recorded as having significant responsibility for research — with outputs required in proportion to that calculated volume rather than tied to individually listed academics.

    What Does REF 2029 Assess?

    REF 2029 assesses research quality through three weighted elements. Each Unit of Assessment receives a profile combining scores across all three, expressed on the same five-point scale used since REF 2014 (4* world-leading down to unclassified).

    Assessment element What it covers Weighting
    Contribution to Knowledge and Understanding (CKU) Peer review of submitted research outputs (publications, datasets, practice-based outputs) and a unit-level disciplinary statement 55%
    Engagement and Impact (E&I) Impact case studies describing effects on the economy, society, culture, public policy, health or quality of life beyond academia 25%
    Strategy, People and Research Environment (SPRE) Institution- and unit-level statements on research culture, people strategies, and research infrastructure 20%

    SPRE — renamed from the originally proposed “People, Culture and Environment” (PCE) element — is scored 60% at institutional level and 40% at unit level, meaning an institution’s overall research infrastructure carries more weight than any single department’s environment.

    How Does REF 2029 Differ From REF 2021?

    REF 2029 keeps the same three-part structure as REF 2021 but rebalances the weightings and changes how submissions are built. The table below compares the two exercises directly.

    Feature REF 2021 REF 2029
    Outputs element weighting Outputs: 60% CKU: 55%
    Impact element weighting Impact: 25% Engagement and Impact: 25%
    Environment element weighting Environment: 15% Strategy, People and Research Environment: 20%
    Staff submission model Named individual staff, fixed outputs per person Decoupled; HESA-derived research volume, no fixed per-person minimum
    Output portability Output counted for both institutions if a researcher moved Tied to the employing institution by default, with a five-year portability concession for long-form outputs

    An important, under-reported fact for anyone new to REF: the REF 2029 criteria-setting process was formally paused in autumn 2025 after sector concern about the original PCE proposals, and the current weightings above were only confirmed in winter 2025 once the pause was lifted. Guidance published before that point should be treated as superseded.

    What Is the REF 2029 Timetable?

    The REF 2029 project timetable, maintained by Research England and last updated 10 December 2025, sets out the milestones below. Institutions preparing their first submission should track this schedule directly, since dates for the census and output periods are refined as guidance is finalised.

    Milestone Timing
    REF renamed from “REF 2028” to “REF 2029”; extension confirmed Winter 2023
    Full expert panel membership announced Summer/Autumn 2025
    REF 2029 criteria-setting paused Autumn 2025
    Weightings confirmed; SPRE and Engagement and Impact guidance published Winter 2025
    Final guidance on submissions and panel criteria published Autumn 2026
    Survey of submission intentions Spring–Summer 2027
    Submission window opens Autumn 2027
    Submission deadline; assessment phase begins Autumn 2028
    Results published December 2029

    Common Questions About REF 2029

    Is it REF 2028 or REF 2029?

    It is REF 2029. The exercise was originally planned as “REF 2028” but Research England announced an extension in December 2023 following consultation, renaming it REF 2029 and moving the results date to December 2029, with submissions due in autumn 2028.

    What Are the Changes in REF 2029?

    The three headline changes are: decoupling of outputs from named individual staff in favour of a HESA-derived research volume measure; a rebalanced weighting toward outputs (CKU 55%) and research environment (SPRE 20%); and a five-year portability concession for long-form outputs when researchers move institution.

    What Is the REF 2029 Definition of Impact?

    REF’s definition of impact, carried forward into REF 2029’s Engagement and Impact element, is an effect on, change to, or benefit for the economy, society, culture, public policy, services, health, the environment, or quality of life, occurring beyond academia. It is evidenced through impact case studies at Unit of Assessment level.

    What Period Does REF 2029 Cover?

    REF 2029’s submission deadline falls in autumn 2028, with the assessment phase running through 2029 and results published in December 2029. Exact census and output-period start/end dates are confirmed in the REF 2029 guidance’s Section 1 Overview, published on the official REF 2029 site.

    What This Means for First-Time Submitters

    If you are a new research-administration staff member or an early-career researcher encountering REF for the first time, three practical points follow from the above:

    • You will not be individually “submitted” or excluded by name in the way REF 2021 worked — your institution’s HESA-derived staff data determines its overall output requirement, so your contribution matters at unit level rather than through a fixed personal output quota.
    • Impact case studies and disciplinary statements still require accurate, evidenced attribution of who contributed what to a piece of research — this is where standardised contributorship records become operationally useful for REF preparation.
    • Because REF 2029’s criteria were paused and then revised in 2025, always check the publication date on any guidance document against the official REF 2029 timetable before relying on it.

    Where to Find Primary REF 2029 Guidance

    The authoritative source for REF 2029 rules, panel criteria and open-access policy is the official REF 2029 site, maintained by Research England on behalf of the four funding bodies; institution-specific planning pages from individual universities (Reading, Leeds, Oxford, St Andrews and others) are useful secondary summaries but should always be checked against the primary guidance sections. UKRI’s Research England pages provide the policy and funding context that sits above the REF itself.

    For institutions building out their REF submission workflows, clear, standardised contributor attribution is increasingly relevant to both the Engagement and Impact and Contribution to Knowledge and Understanding elements — an area where CRediT-based contributor role taxonomies and broader research administration practice intersect with REF preparation. As REF 2029’s remaining guidance and panel criteria are finalised through 2026 and 2027, first-time submitters should expect further refinement rather than wholesale change to the framework described here.

  • REF 2029 Initial Decisions: What UKRI Confirmed and What’s Still Open for Consultation

    The REF 2029 initial decisions, published in 2023, confirmed decoupled outputs, HESA-based volume measures and no per-researcher output limits. On 10 December 2025, UKRI and Research England locked in revised element weightings and simplified guidance after an autumn pause – but the detailed Panel Criteria and Working Methods remain unpublished until Autumn 2026.

    The Research Excellence Framework (REF) is the UK’s system for assessing the quality and impact of research produced by higher education institutions, with REF 2029 the next exercise in the series and results due for publication in December 2029.

    What did the original REF 2029 Initial Decisions confirm in 2023?

    The four UK higher education funding bodies published Research Excellence Framework 2029: initial decisions and issues for further consultation (reference REF 2023/01) after reaching agreement through the Future Research Assessment Programme Board. This document set the high-level architecture that everything since has built on.

    Three assessment elements were renamed and reweighted to reflect a broader definition of research excellence: the outputs element became Contribution to Knowledge and Understanding, the environment element became People, Culture and Environment, and the impact element became Engagement and Impact. The funding bodies also confirmed that REF 2029 would move further away from assessing individuals, replacing staff-linked output counts with a volume measure drawn directly from Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) staff records.

    • Outputs decoupled from individual researchers under a “substantive link” policy tying outputs to the submitting institution instead.
    • No minimum or maximum number of outputs per individual, intended to widen inclusivity for early-career and returning researchers.
    • Unit-of-assessment structure retained largely as in REF 2021.
    • A short, targeted consultation on specific policy aspects launched immediately, alongside a discrete Open Access policy consultation.

    What changed when REF 2029 resumed after the 2025 pause?

    REF 2029 criteria-setting was paused in autumn 2025, following an announcement by UK Science Minister Lord Vallance that final guidance and Panel Criteria and Working Methods would not proceed to publication on the original schedule. On 10 December 2025, the REF team and the four funding bodies published updates confirming the exercise had resumed, shaped by further engagement with the sector and the expert REF panels.

    The People, Culture and Environment element was renamed again, to Strategy, People and Research Environment (SPRE), building on the REF 2021 Environment component and informed by the People, Culture and Environment Pilot report published the same day. Several simplifications were confirmed to reduce burden on institutions:

    • Contribution to Knowledge and Understanding (CKU) guidance simplified and clarified, with unit-level statements removed.
    • A recommended maximum of five outputs per researcher reinstated for clarity, while the minimum of one stays removed.
    • Impact case study requirements reduced to one for the smallest units, and the 2* qualifying threshold for underpinning research removed.
    • Limited portability introduced for long-form and extended-process research outputs, alongside simplified substantive-link requirements.

    Crucially, the funding bodies decided there would be no formal consultation on the guidance or the Panel Criteria and Working Methods, in order to protect the original timetable. REF 2029 panels began meeting in early 2026 to set criteria, and an Institutional-Level Working Group for SPRE is being established.

    How do the confirmed REF 2029 weightings compare at each stage?

    The element weightings moved between the 2023 Initial Decisions and the December 2025 update, reflecting sector feedback and the results of the PCE Pilot. Research England’s own framing is definitive: the funding bodies “refined these weightings having listened to the sector and considered the results of the PCE Pilot.”

    Element 2023 Initial Decisions weighting Confirmed 10 Dec 2025 weighting
    Strategy, People and Research Environment (formerly People, Culture and Environment) 25% 20%
    Contribution to Knowledge and Understanding 50% 55%
    Engagement and Impact 25% 25% (unchanged)

    REF underpins the allocation of roughly £2 billion annually in UK research funding, according to the REF team’s December 2025 announcement, which is why the funding bodies have prioritised timetable stability over a further round of formal consultation on these revised figures.

    Which REF 2029 questions remain open ahead of criteria publication?

    Despite the pace of confirmations through December 2025, the granular assessment criteria that panels and institutions ultimately submit against are not yet public. Per the REF 2029 timetable (last updated 10 December 2025), the sector is currently in the “onboarding of sub-panels” and “expert panels meet to develop guidance” phase covering winter, spring and summer 2026.

    • Panel Criteria and Working Methods – the unit-of-assessment-level detail institutions need for submission planning – is scheduled for Autumn 2026, not before.
    • The Institutional-Level Working Group for SPRE has not yet reported; its recommendations will shape how the 20%-weighted element is actually assessed.
    • The special requests process for exceptional submission circumstances launches only in the 2026-2027 winter window.
    • A long-form-output open access mandate was explicitly ruled out for REF 2029 itself but remains under discussion for the exercise that follows it.
    • Because the funding bodies opted out of formal consultation on the guidance and Panel Criteria and Working Methods, sector input on these final documents will run through panel and steering-group engagement rather than a published open call for responses.

    Answer-first Q&A on REF 2029

    What are the key changes for REF 2029?

    REF 2029 renames and reweights the three assessment elements, decouples outputs from named individuals under a substantive-link policy, replaces staff-linked output counts with a HESA-derived volume measure, and removes per-researcher output minimums while reinstating a recommended maximum of five outputs.

    What is the REF 2029 process?

    Institutions build submissions against Contribution to Knowledge and Understanding, Strategy, People and Research Environment, and Engagement and Impact, following Panel Criteria and Working Methods due in Autumn 2026. The submission window opens autumn 2027, closes autumn 2028, with results published December 2029.

    How many impact case studies are required for REF 2029?

    The December 2025 update reduced the impact case study requirement to a minimum of one for the smallest submitting units, retaining the REF 2021-style approach otherwise, and removed the 2* qualifying threshold previously applied to underpinning research.

    What publications are eligible for REF 2029?

    Outputs are eligible where they have a demonstrable substantive link to the submitting institution during the REF period, rather than being tied to a named individual’s employment dates, with simplified requirements and limited portability for long-form and extended-process research outputs.

    What the REF 2029 timeline means for institutions

    Research administrators cannot yet finalise submission strategy against unit-of-assessment-level criteria that do not exist in published form. What institutions can act on now are the settled structural decisions: the HESA-based volume measure, the substantive-link output policy, the five-output guideline, and the confirmed 20/55/25 weighting split.

    Because no formal consultation will precede the Autumn 2026 Final Guidance, the practical channel for institutional input is direct engagement with REF panels and the Institutional-Level Working Group for SPRE, not a published response process. This is a materially different sector-engagement model from the 2023-2024 Initial Decisions consultation and the 2024 Open Access consultation, both of which invited written responses.

    These structural questions sit alongside, but are distinct from, contributorship and authorship-attribution debates addressed by frameworks such as the authorship standards used elsewhere in scholarly communication, and the broader discipline of research administration that REF submission planning falls under.

    Outlook: REF 2029 heading toward Autumn 2026 Final Guidance

    REF 2029 has moved from broad principle to confirmed structure faster than its criteria have moved to publishable detail. The Initial Decisions set direction in 2023; the December 2025 update, following the 2025 pause, fixed weightings and simplified several requirements. What remains – the Panel Criteria and Working Methods – is the document institutions actually need to plan submissions, and it will not arrive before Autumn 2026. Until then, “REF 2029 initial decisions” describes a settled foundation, not a finished rulebook.

  • Research Excellence Framework 2029: SPRE Explained

    The Research Excellence Framework 2029 replaces the old institution-level and unit-level Environment statements with a single Strategy, People, and Research Environment (SPRE) element, worth 20% of the overall quality profile, in which a new institutional-level statement (ILS) — not a unit-level narrative — now carries 60% of the score. This marks the most significant structural change to how UK higher education institutions report research culture since REF 2021, shifting accountability for a supportive research environment from individual departments to institutional leadership.

    The Research Excellence Framework 2029 (REF 2029) is the UK’s next national exercise for assessing the quality of research at higher education institutions (HEIs), run jointly by Research England, the Scottish Funding Council, Medr (Wales) and the Department for the Economy, Northern Ireland, with results due in December 2029 following submissions in autumn 2028.

    What is REF 2029’s Strategy, People and Research Environment (SPRE) statement?

    The Strategy, People, and Research Environment (SPRE) element is the REF 2029 assessment component that evolved directly from the REF 2021 Environment statements, known then as REF5a (institution-level) and REF5b (unit-level). According to REF 2029 guidance published 10 December 2025, the funding bodies renamed the element after concluding the People, Culture and Environment (PCE) pilot, a project led by Technopolis and CRAC-Vitae that trialled culture-and-environment indicators across a representative sample of institutions and units of assessment.

    The rename signals a genuine shift in emphasis, not just cosmetic rebranding. Where REF 2021’s environment template centred on describing existing infrastructure and past activity, SPRE explicitly foregrounds institutional strategy — the “active way institutions respond to their potentially challenging operating contexts,” in the funding bodies’ own words — as the driver of research culture outcomes, alongside the people and environment factors carried over from 2021.

    How is SPRE scored across institution and unit level?

    SPRE will account for 20% of the overall unit quality profile in REF 2029 — comparable in scale to the 15% weighting the Environment element held in REF 2021, though the assessment mechanics have changed considerably. Within that 20%, scoring is now split between two separately reported statements, weighted to reflect institutional versus departmental responsibility for research culture:

    Statement Weight within SPRE Effective share of overall unit profile Assessed by
    Institution-level statement (ILS) 60% 12% Sub-panels, informed by IL working group
    Unit-level statement (ULS) 40% 8% Sub-panels directly

    Both statements are assessed against the same two criteria used for Environment in REF 2021 — vitality and sustainability. Notably, the funding bodies decided against adding a third “rigour” criterion despite piloting it during the PCE exercise; panels found reflective-practice narratives valuable but not straightforward to measure robustly, so continuous-improvement evidence is recognised within the existing criteria rather than scored separately.

    What must the institutional-level statement (ILS) cover?

    Both the ILS and the unit-level statement (ULS) are built around four common sections, unchanged in structure from the REF 2021 template but now applied consistently at both levels:

    • Context, mission and strategy
    • People
    • Income, infrastructure and facilities
    • Collaboration, engagement and impact

    Word limits are flexible across the four sections rather than fixed per section, and the ILS word allowance is anticipated to be fixed regardless of institution size, while the ULS allowance will be smaller with an extra allowance for larger units. The ILS covers the period 1 August 2020 to 31 July 2028 and, once submitted, is shared with sub-panels so it can inform their assessment of the corresponding ULS — meaning institutions no longer control research-culture narrative in isolation at unit level.

    Two entirely new requirements sit inside the ULS: a Statement of Representation, justifying how submitted outputs reflect the unit’s full range of research activity, and a Statement on the Research Community: Roles and Careers, describing the composition of everyone contributing to a unit’s research — not only those counted in the volume measure, but research technical professionals, engagement and impact staff, research managers and librarians. This broadened definition of “who counts” as a research contributor echoes the logic behind the CRediT contributor role taxonomy, which CASRAI originated in 2014 to formally recognise the full range of contributor roles beyond conventional authorship credit; the standard is now stewarded by NISO as ANSI/NISO Z39.104-2022. Institutions building their roles-and-careers narratives may find that existing CRediT role definitions offer a ready-made vocabulary for describing research-team composition.

    Two dedicated advisory panels will inform assessment of the “People” section specifically: the People and Diversity Advisory Panel (PDAP) and the Research Diversity Advisory Panel (RDAP), which will run calibration exercises early in the assessment cycle before advising sub-panels on strengths and concerns.

    REF 2029 SPRE: answer-first Q&A

    What is the Research Excellence Framework?

    The Research Excellence Framework is the UK’s system for assessing research quality at higher education institutions, run by Research England, the Scottish Funding Council, Medr and the Department for the Economy, Northern Ireland. Its outcomes shape block-grant research funding allocations and provide public accountability for research investment across UK universities.

    What are the key changes for REF 2029?

    REF 2029 replaces environment statements with the SPRE element, introduces an assessed institution-level statement worth 60% of SPRE, decouples the volume measure from submitted outputs, and adds a Statement of Representation and a research community roles-and-careers statement at unit level. Full templates and indicators are due for confirmation during 2026.

    What does the REF 2029 SPRE statement cover?

    SPRE statements address four sections — context, mission and strategy; people; income, infrastructure and facilities; and collaboration, engagement and impact — at both institution and unit level. Narratives are supported by indicators drawn from a basket confirmed with panels, rather than a fixed metrics table, and are assessed on vitality and sustainability.

    Who is eligible for REF 2029?

    Eligibility turns on whether staff hold “significant responsibility for research” (SRR) under an eligible contract at a submitting UK higher education institution, rather than a simple headcount threshold. REF 2029 guidance sets out institutional codes of practice governing how SRR, research independence and unit assignment are identified and verified.

    What this means for research administrators and institutional leaders

    The practical consequence of SPRE is that research-culture reporting can no longer be delegated entirely to departments. Because the ILS carries 60% of the SPRE score and is shared with sub-panels as context for every ULS they assess, institutional strategy teams — not just unit directors — now own a directly assessed piece of the REF quality profile. Research administrators should expect earlier, more centralised drafting cycles for the ILS, closer coordination between central research offices and units on the new Statement of Representation, and a data-collection burden shift towards documenting institution-wide roles and careers rather than only publication-linked staff.

    Because the final templates, indicators and panel criteria for SPRE are still being finalised through 2026, institutions that begin mapping their existing environment narratives against the four SPRE sections now — and start building the evidence base for “distance travelled” since REF 2021 — will be better placed when detailed panel criteria are published.

  • REF 2029 Timeline: Panel Criteria to Submission

    The REF 2029 timeline runs from the 2023 “Initial Decisions” consultation through panel criteria-setting in 2026, a submission window opening in autumn 2027, a final submission deadline in autumn 2028, and publication of results in December 2029. The Research Excellence Framework (REF) is the UK’s system for assessing research quality across higher education institutions, run jointly by the four UK higher education funding bodies through Research England.

    Research administrators planning REF 2029 submissions need more than a single headline date — they need the full sequence: when criteria are finalised, when the output and impact eligibility periods start and end, when panels are recruited, and when institutions must submit. This guide lays out that end-to-end schedule in order, drawing on the official REF 2029 timetable published by Research England.

    What is the REF 2029 timeline, in brief?

    REF 2029 is the UK’s next national research assessment exercise, following REF 2021. It was originally planned as “REF 2028” but was renamed REF 2029 in December 2023 after Research England extended the schedule to allow more development time for new assessment elements. Under the current timetable, published by Research England’s REF 2029 site and last updated 10 December 2025, final results are scheduled for publication in December 2029.

    The exercise unfolds in four broad phases: policy and panel-building (2023–2025), criteria finalisation (2026), submission (2027–2028), and results and data publication (2029–2030). Each phase carries distinct deadlines that institutional REF leads need to track separately, since panel criteria, output/impact eligibility windows, and submission logistics are set on different clocks.

    2023–2025: policy development and panel recruitment

    The groundwork for REF 2029 began years before any submission window opened. Research England published “Initial Decisions” in summer 2023, setting out the high-level design of the next exercise, followed by a consultation period. In December 2023, the funding bodies confirmed the exercise would be renamed REF 2029, with results due in December 2029 rather than the originally planned 2028.

    Panel and policy work then proceeded on a rolling basis:

    • Spring 2024 — advisory panel recruitment opened alongside a consultation on the REF 2029 Open Access policy.
    • Summer 2024 — Expert Panel recruitment began, and a web-based policy publication approach was introduced.
    • Autumn/Winter 2024–2025 — the Open Access Policy and Volume Measure guidance (with associated Codes of Practice guidance) were published.
    • Summer 2025 — draft “Contributions to Knowledge and Understanding” guidance was published, and full Expert Panel membership was announced ahead of the criteria-setting phase.

    In September 2025, Research England announced a pause to REF 2029 criteria setting and the publication of final guidance, stating that any changes to the exercise would be announced by December 2025. On 10 December 2025, REF 2029 resumed: weightings were confirmed, the People, Culture and Environment (PCE) pilot report and indicators report were published, and updated Strategy, People and Research Environment (SPRE) and Engagement and Impact guidance followed. SPRE replaces the PCE element trialled in the pilot and builds on the REF 2021 Environment component — the single most significant structural change carried into REF 2029.

    2026: panel criteria setting and final guidance

    2026 is the year sub-panels finalise the rules institutions will submit against. Across winter, spring and summer 2026, sub-panels complete onboarding and Expert Panels meet to develop detailed assessment criteria and working methods, building on the guidance sections published through 2025.

    Research England has confirmed there will be no formal public consultation on this final guidance and the Panel Criteria and Working Methods — a deliberate step to protect the compressed schedule after the 2025 pause. Final Guidance on Submissions and the Panel Criteria and Working Methods documents are scheduled for publication in autumn 2026, giving institutions roughly a year’s notice before the submission window opens. Anonymised REF 2029 Steering Group and Panel meeting minutes and papers covering January 2023 to September 2026 are planned for publication in December 2026.

    2027–2028: submission window and census dates

    The submission phase is where planning turns into deadlines. Research England’s schedule sets out:

    • Winter 2026/2027 — the special requests process (for individual staff circumstances affecting output/impact counts) launches.
    • Spring 2027 — the survey of submission intentions opens, giving institutions an early formal checkpoint to signal likely unit-of-assessment submissions.
    • Summer 2027 — the survey of submission intentions and the special requests process both close.
    • Autumn 2027 — additional recruitment for assessment-phase panels takes place, and the submission window opens.
    • Autumn 2028 — the final submission deadline falls, and the formal assessment phase begins immediately afterwards.

    Running alongside the submission window are the fixed eligibility (census) periods that determine which staff, outputs and impact activity can be submitted. Research England’s published parameters set the output eligibility period from 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2028, and the impact assessment period from 1 August 2020 to 31 July 2028, with underpinning research for impact case studies eligible from as early as 1 January 2008. These dates are distinct from the submission deadline itself: an output can be eligible for REF 2029 without the submission window for that unit of assessment yet being open, and administrators should track eligibility and submission-window dates as two separate schedules, not one.

    REF 2029: submission-phase milestones vs. eligibility periods
    Milestone or period Scheduled date What it governs
    Survey of submission intentions Spring–Summer 2027 Early signal of institutional submission plans
    Submission window opens Autumn 2027 Institutions may begin formal submission
    Output eligibility (census) period 1 Jan 2021 – 31 Dec 2028 Which research outputs qualify
    Impact assessment period 1 Aug 2020 – 31 Jul 2028 Which impact activity qualifies
    Underpinning research window (impact) From 1 Jan 2008 Earliest eligible research behind an impact case study
    Final submission deadline Autumn 2028 Last date to submit; assessment phase begins

    2029–2030: results and data publication

    Once submissions close in autumn 2028, the four expert main panels and their sub-panels assess outputs, impact case studies, and Strategy, People and Research Environment (formerly Environment/PCE) statements. Publication of REF 2029 results and quality profiles is planned for December 2029, the terminal date from which the exercise takes its name.

    Data and transparency publications follow in the new year: publication of submitted data and full final reports — including REF 2029 Steering Group and Panel meeting minutes and papers covering October 2026 to December 2029 — is planned for March 2030. Results inform the subsequent allocation of block-grant quality-related (QR) research funding across UK higher education institutions, in the same way REF 2021 outcomes shaped funding allocations from 2022 onward.

    Common REF 2029 timeline questions

    What period does REF 2029 cover?

    REF 2029 covers research outputs produced between 1 January 2021 and 31 December 2028, and impact activity between 1 August 2020 and 31 July 2028, underpinned by research eligible from 1 January 2008. The submission deadline falls in autumn 2028, with results published in December 2029.

    What are the key changes for REF 2029?

    The most significant change is the replacement of the REF 2021 “Environment” element and the piloted “People, Culture and Environment” (PCE) approach with a new Strategy, People and Research Environment (SPRE) element. Other changes include revised Contributions to Knowledge and Understanding guidance, updated volume measure rules using HESA data, and a renamed, delayed exercise (originally “REF 2028”).

    What is the REF 2029 strategy element?

    The Strategy, People and Research Environment (SPRE) guidance assesses whether an institution’s research environment enables diverse, excellent research, supports its people, and contributes positively to the wider research ecosystem and society. It builds directly on the REF 2021 Environment component rather than replacing it wholesale.

    Is it REF 2028 or REF 2029?

    It is REF 2029. Research England originally planned the next exercise as “REF 2028,” but in December 2023, following consultation, it confirmed an extension to the timing, renaming the exercise REF 2029 with results now scheduled for December 2029 rather than 2028.

    Implications for research administrators

    Because REF 2029 combines a compressed criteria-setting phase (following the 2025 pause) with a submission window that does not open until autumn 2027, institutions have a narrower practical planning window than REF 2021 offered at the equivalent stage. Research offices should treat the autumn 2026 final guidance publication as the trigger point for internal REF preparation — code of practice reviews, output and impact case study identification, and HESA data reconciliation — rather than waiting for the submission window itself to open.

    Tracking the output eligibility period (2021–2028) separately from the submission window (2027–2028) also matters operationally: outputs published early in the eligibility period may need portability and authorship documentation gathered well before any submission system opens, particularly where staff move institutions during the assessment cycle.

    What to watch next

    The next fixed points on the REF 2029 timeline are the autumn 2026 final guidance publication, the spring 2027 survey of submission intentions, and the autumn 2027 submission window opening. Given the September–December 2025 pause already shifted internal milestones once, institutions should monitor Research England’s published timetable directly for further updates rather than relying on a fixed date without a recheck.

  • REF 2029 Output Eligibility: OA Exceptions

    REF 2029 output eligibility does not require every journal article or conference paper to be immediately open access. The policy allows four exception categories — deposit, access, technical, and a catch-all “other” route covering staff circumstances, third-party rights and technical infeasibility — each keeping an otherwise non-compliant output eligible, provided the exception is identified, evidenced and stays within a unit’s five per cent non-compliance tolerance.

    The REF 2029 open access policy is the UK funding bodies’ requirement that in-scope journal articles and conference proceedings, published between 1 January 2021 and 31 December 2028, be deposited, discoverable and freely accessible to be eligible for the Research Excellence Framework 2029, subject to defined exceptions.

    Durham University’s Library Research Support service publishes a working exceptions log — updated as recently as 1 July 2026 — that maps each permitted exception to the evidence a research office should hold, offering a practical template for institutions building their own REF 2029 compliance file.

    Contents

    What counts as an REF 2029 output eligibility exception?

    An REF 2029 output eligibility exception is a recognised circumstance under which an in-scope journal article or conference contribution is exempt from some or all open access criteria while remaining eligible for submission. The REF 2029 open access policy, last updated 13 June 2025, groups these into deposit, access and technical exceptions plus a further “other” exception for circumstances beyond an institution’s control.

    Applying an exception correctly means the output is treated as no-detriment and does not count against a unit’s compliance tolerance. Misapplying one, or failing to evidence it, risks the output being reclassified as unclassified during audit.

    Two separate exception frameworks apply depending on when the output was first published:

    • Outputs published 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2025 follow the carried-forward REF 2021 exception categories, with one additional exception added for REF 2029.
    • Outputs published from 1 January 2026 follow a revised, consolidated exceptions framework of four categories, alongside tighter embargo maxima (six months for Main Panels A and B, twelve months for Main Panels C and D, down from twelve and twenty-four months respectively).

    Individual staff circumstances: who qualifies for an exception?

    Staff-circumstance exceptions cover authors whose personal, employment or contractual situation made compliance genuinely impossible. Under the “other” exception, this includes extenuating personal circumstances such as extended leave, industrial action, institutional closure days, and software problems not already covered by the technical category.

    A related technical exception applies where an output has a substantive connection to the submitting institution but was published after the author’s employment ended, and compliance could not be determined. A further exception, introduced for REF 2029, exempts outputs authored entirely by staff ineligible for the volume measure, since they had no expectation of needing compliance.

    One risk is flagged explicitly: institutions relying heavily on the “other” category are more likely to attract a higher audit risk score, though deposit, access or technical exceptions do not themselves raise risk. A researcher on long-term sick leave whose manuscript could not be deposited within the three-month window would typically be recorded under “other”, with leave dates and repository correspondence kept as evidence — the record Durham’s log recommends holding before, not after, submission.

    Third-party rights and technical infeasibility: the other routes

    Third-party rights exceptions apply where an output reproduces content — images, data extracts, previously published material — for which open licences could not be obtained at reasonable cost or within the required timescale. Here, deposit and discovery requirements still apply; only access and/or licensing conditions are waived.

    Technical infeasibility exceptions cover cases where the failure sits with infrastructure rather than the author: a repository’s short-term technical failure (excluding systemic issues), or an external service provider failure, such as a subject repository that did not lift an embargo on schedule or ceased operating altogether.

    Exception category What it exempts Typical qualifying scenario
    Deposit All open access criteria (deposit, discovery, access, licensing) Unlawful to deposit; publisher disallows repository deposit; delay securing final peer-reviewed text
    Access Access, embargo and/or licensing only — deposit and discovery still required Embargo exceeds policy maxima; third-party content licensing unavailable
    Technical All open access criteria Repository or external service provider failure; employment ended before publication
    Other All open access criteria Personal circumstances, industrial action, closure days, unlisted software issues

    Durham’s exceptions log as a working model

    Durham University’s Library Research Support service maintains a dedicated REF 2029 Open Access Exceptions guide, structured as four tabs: deposit, access, and technical/other exceptions for outputs published to 31 December 2025, plus a consolidated four-category framework for outputs from 1 January 2026. Each tab pairs the qualifying scenarios with how the exception is expected to be evidenced during any future audit.

    Two features make it a useful model: it separates outputs by publication date, since qualifying criteria and embargo maxima genuinely differ either side of 1 January 2026; and it is candid about what remains unresolved. As of its 1 July 2026 update, Durham states that “the internal process for applying exceptions is yet to be confirmed,” directing queries to its repository administration team meanwhile — a reminder that internal workflows keep evolving well after the REF policy text has stabilised.

    Documenting exceptions for audit: what research offices must keep

    REF 2029 audit will broadly mirror the risk-based approach used for REF 2021, per the funding bodies’ guidance, while final procedures remain under development. In REF 2021, ten institutions’ submissions were selected for second-stage audit on a risk basis, producing four data adjustments; three were separately selected for substantive sampling; one had to adjust its submission by a single output. For REF 2029, evidence may be required at individual-output level, including written justification for any use of the “other” category.

    A minimum evidence file for each exception should include:

    1. The exception category claimed and the REF 2029 guidance paragraph it falls under.
    2. Dates of acceptance, publication and deposit, plus any embargo end date.
    3. Correspondence documenting the barrier — a publisher refusal, or confirmation of a service outage.
    4. A short narrative justification, particularly for “most appropriate publication” or “other” claims.
    5. Confirmation the output falls within the unit’s five per cent, or one-output, tolerance.

    Institutions should also monitor exception mix over time: a submission weighted heavily toward “other”, rather than deposit, access or technical exceptions, is more likely to draw a higher audit risk score, even where every claim is legitimate.

    Answer-first Q&A

    What is the publication period for REF 2029?

    The output types in scope of the REF 2029 open access policy are journal articles and conference contributions with an International Standard Serial Number, first published between 1 January 2021 and 31 December 2028. Outputs published from 1 January 2026 follow revised deposit, embargo and licensing requirements, while earlier outputs follow REF 2021-derived rules carried forward for REF 2029.

    What publications are eligible for REF 2029?

    Eligible outputs include journal articles and conference proceedings with an ISSN, plus long-form outputs such as monographs, book chapters and scholarly editions, which carry no open access requirement. Datasets, code, protocols and artistic creations are also welcomed, though they sit outside the open access policy’s scope entirely.

    What does the REF output rating measure?

    REF output quality is measured against three fundamental dimensions: originality, the development of new concepts or techniques; significance, the capacity to influence scholarly thought, policy or practice; and rigour, the intellectual coherence and robustness of the methodology. Open access exceptions affect eligibility, not the quality score itself, which panels assess independently.

    What this means for research offices ahead of REF 2029

    For research administration teams, exception management is now a compliance workstream in its own right, not an afterthought bolted onto repository deposit. With a five per cent (or one-output) tolerance per unit of assessment, a handful of poorly evidenced exceptions can tip a submission over the threshold and trigger removal of otherwise strong outputs. Institutions should build an exceptions log now, using Durham’s date-segmented structure as a template: separate outputs to 31 December 2025 from those from 1 January 2026, record the exception paragraph relied upon, and retain evidence when the exception first arises, not retrospectively. Given that REF 2021 audits produced adjustments even at confident institutions, a living exceptions file — not a retrospective justification exercise — separates a smooth submission from a last-minute scramble.

  • REF 2029 Pause Lifted: Criteria Setting Resumes

    The REF 2029 pause ended on 10 December 2025. The UK’s four higher education funding bodies confirmed the criteria-setting phase — halted for three months after a September 2025 ministerial announcement — has resumed, with updated guidance published and expert panels set to begin meeting in early 2026 to finalise assessment criteria. The overall submission deadline of autumn 2028 is unchanged.

    The Research Excellence Framework (REF) is the UK’s system for assessing the quality, impact and environment of research produced by higher education institutions, with outcomes used to allocate roughly £2 billion in annual research funding across the four nations. REF 2029 is the fourth full exercise, following REF 2014 and REF 2021, and results are due in December 2029.

    What was the REF 2029 pause and why did it happen?

    On 4 September 2025, UK Science Minister Lord Vallance announced a pause to REF 2029 criteria setting at the Universities UK annual conference. The same day, the four UK higher education funding bodies — Research England, the Scottish Funding Council, Medr (Wales’ Commission for Tertiary Education and Research), and the Department for the Economy, Northern Ireland — jointly confirmed the pause in a statement describing it as an opportunity to “take stock, ensure alignment with government priorities and vision for higher education, and reflect on feedback from the sector.”

    The funding bodies were explicit that the overall REF timetable would not be delayed, even though the pause affected specific milestones: publication of final guidance modules and the REF 2029 Code of Practice approval process were both pushed back, with institutional REF contacts notified about revised Code of Practice submission windows. Panel members for the criteria-setting phase were appointed on the same day the pause was announced, so that work could resume quickly once the framework was finalised. The funding bodies committed to announcing the outcome by December 2025 — a commitment they met.

    What changed when REF 2029 resumed in December 2025?

    On 10 December 2025, REF 2029 published a package of updates confirming the pause had lifted and criteria setting had resumed. The most substantive change was to the assessment element formerly called People, Culture and Environment (PCE), which has been renamed Strategy, People and Research Environment (SPRE). SPRE builds on the REF 2021 Environment component and draws directly on findings from the People, Culture and Environment Pilot, whose final report was published the same day.

    The funding bodies also refined the weightings across all three assessment elements. In line with feedback from the sector and the pilot’s results, the final split is:

    Assessment element REF 2029 weighting (confirmed 10 Dec 2025) Notes
    Contributions to Knowledge and Understanding (CKU) 55% Simplified and clarified; unit-level statements removed
    Engagement and Impact (E&I) 25% Broadly retained from REF 2021; unit-level statements removed
    Strategy, People and Research Environment (SPRE) 20% Replaces PCE; builds on REF 2021 Environment component

    Other confirmed simplifications reduce reporting burden without reopening the core Initial Decisions on REF 2029 published in 2023. The recommended maximum of five outputs per researcher is reinstated for clarity, but the minimum of one has been removed to avoid pressure on individual researchers. Outputs remain decoupled from individuals under the substantive link policy, with simplified requirements and limited portability introduced for long-form and extended-process research outputs. Impact case study requirements are reduced to one for the smallest submitting units, and the 2* qualifying threshold for underpinning research has been removed.

    • Unit-level statements removed from both CKU and Engagement and Impact
    • Maximum of five outputs per researcher reinstated; minimum of one removed
    • Impact case study minimum reduced to one for the smallest units
    • Limited portability for long-form and extended-process outputs, alongside continued decoupling under the substantive link policy
    • Small-unit exemption process retained from REF 2021, with expanded eligibility

    What did UKRI and Research England confirm about the 2026 restart?

    Research England, acting on behalf of all four funding bodies, confirmed that REF panels will begin meeting in early 2026 to set detailed criteria and finalise the Panel Criteria and Working Methods documents. An Institutional-Level Working Group dedicated to the new SPRE element will also be established as part of this restart.

    Notably, the funding bodies confirmed there will be no formal consultation on the resulting guidance or on the Panel Criteria and Working Methods, a deliberate choice made “to maintain the original timetable.” This is a material procedural difference from REF 2021, where panel criteria went through public consultation before finalisation — institutions should not expect a further comment period before criteria are locked in during 2026. The REF team and funding bodies have said they will continue engaging with the sector through other channels as the panels do this work.

    REF 2029 Director Rebecca Fairbairn described the exercise as “a framework built with and for the sector,” while Universities UK chief executive Vivienne Stern said the sector “strongly welcome[s] this pragmatic approach,” calling it evidence that “the four UK funding bodies have listened carefully to researchers and universities.”

    What does this mean for institutional planning timelines?

    For research offices, the practical headline is that the submission deadline has not moved: REF 2029 submissions remain due in autumn 2028, with results published in December 2029. What has moved is the sequencing of guidance institutions need in order to plan.

    Milestone Date
    REF 2029 (originally REF 2028) confirmed and renamed December 2023 (Initial Decisions)
    Pause to criteria setting and final guidance announced 4-5 September 2025
    Updated guidance published; pause lifted; criteria setting resumes 10 December 2025
    REF panels begin meeting to set criteria and finalise guidance Early 2026
    Institutional submission deadline Autumn 2028
    Results published December 2029

    Because there will be no formal consultation on the criteria panels finalise from early 2026, institutional REF strategy groups have a narrower window than in previous cycles to influence detail before it is locked in. Research offices should treat the December 2025 guidance updates — CKU, Engagement and Impact, SPRE, and Code of Practice sections — as the operative baseline for internal planning now, rather than waiting for a further consultation round that will not occur.

    The revised Code of Practice approval process and submission windows, delayed during the pause, are now confirmed and should be diarised alongside internal REF strategy group timetables. Institutions holding PCE pilot evidence should map it against the new SPRE guidance rather than starting from scratch, since SPRE is built directly on the REF 2021 Environment component and the pilot findings.

    Frequently asked questions

    What period does REF 2029 cover?

    REF 2029 assesses research activity, outputs, impact and environment across a defined assessment period running up to the autumn 2028 submission deadline, with results published in December 2029. Exact census and output period dates are set out in the REF 2029 timetable, updated alongside the December 2025 guidance following the pause.

    What are the key changes for REF 2029?

    The confirmed changes include renaming People, Culture and Environment to Strategy, People and Research Environment (SPRE), revised weightings of 55% CKU, 25% Engagement and Impact and 20% SPRE, removal of unit-level statements, a reinstated five-output maximum, and reduced impact case study minimums for smaller units.

    Is it REF 2028 or REF 2029?

    The exercise was originally planned as REF 2028. Following consultation, the funding bodies confirmed in December 2023 that the timeline would extend, renaming it REF 2029, with submissions in autumn 2028 and results published in December 2029.

    What is the REF 2029 strategy element?

    Strategy, People and Research Environment (SPRE) is the REF 2029 element, weighted at 20%, that assesses institutional research strategy, support for people, and the wider research environment. It builds on the REF 2021 Environment component and incorporates findings from the People, Culture and Environment Pilot.

    The restart confirms that REF 2029 remains on its original autumn 2028 submission timeline despite the 2025 pause, but with a compressed, consultation-free path from panel criteria-setting in early 2026 through to finalised guidance. Institutions that treat the December 2025 updates as settled — rather than provisional — will be best placed to align internal REF strategy group planning, Code of Practice submissions, and SPRE evidence-gathering with the funding bodies’ revised sequence.

  • REF 2029 Open Access Policy: Deposit & Embargo Rules Explained

    The REF 2029 open access policy requires journal articles and conference proceedings with an ISSN, published from 1 January 2026 to 31 December 2028, to be deposited within three months of publication, made available after an embargo of no more than six months (Main Panels A and B) or twelve months (Main Panels C and D), and shared under a licence that is at minimum CC BY-NC-ND, with CC BY strongly preferred. Monographs and other long-form outputs remain outside its scope.

    The REF 2029 open access policy is the funding bodies’ mandatory framework, set out by the four UK higher education funding bodies for the Research Excellence Framework, governing how eligible journal articles and conference outputs must be deposited, embargoed and licensed to count toward a university’s REF 2029 submission.

    What does the REF 2029 open access policy cover?

    The policy applies only to journal articles and conference contributions carrying an International Standard Serial Number (ISSN), published between 1 January 2021 and 31 December 2028. Outputs published before 1 January 2026 remain subject to the legacy REF 2021 requirements, while everything published from 1 January 2026 onward must meet the revised, tighter rules.

    Two publication windows therefore run in parallel for REF 2029 purposes:

    • 1 January 2021 – 31 December 2025: REF 2021-era requirements apply (deposit within three months of acceptance; 12/24-month embargo caps).
    • 1 January 2026 – 31 December 2028: revised REF 2029 requirements apply (deposit within three months of publication; 6/12-month embargo caps; open-licence preference).

    Datasets, code, protocols, artistic outputs and preprints without an ISSN fall outside the policy entirely, though the funding bodies encourage — but do not require — making them open where practical.

    What is the deposit window for REF 2029 outputs?

    For outputs published from 1 January 2026, the author’s accepted manuscript (AAM) — or, where the publication agreement permits, the version of record — must be deposited in an institutional repository, a shared repository service, a subject repository, or a compliant preprint server within three months of the date of publication, not the date of acceptance as under REF 2021.

    This is a meaningful procedural shift: under the REF 2029 guidance hub’s Section 5 policy, the trigger date moves later in the workflow, which library teams need to build into repository-ingest reminders rather than acceptance-stage checklists alone. Institutions that already deposit on acceptance can keep doing so “at no detriment” — the three-month-post-publication rule is a floor, not a ceiling.

    What are the REF 2029 embargo caps by panel?

    For outputs published from 1 January 2026, permitted embargo periods are halved relative to REF 2021: Main Panels A and B (medicine, health, life sciences, physical sciences, engineering, mathematics) fall to a maximum six-month embargo, and Main Panels C and D (social sciences, arts and humanities) fall to a maximum twelve-month embargo. Interdisciplinary outputs spanning A/B and C/D boundaries may use the longer of the two applicable caps.

    Requirement Outputs published 2021–2025 (REF 2021 rules) Outputs published 2026–2028 (REF 2029 rules)
    Deposit trigger Within 3 months of acceptance Within 3 months of publication
    Embargo cap, Panels A & B 12 months 6 months
    Embargo cap, Panels C & D 24 months 12 months
    Licence floor CC BY-NC-ND or equivalent CC BY-NC-ND or equivalent (CC BY preferred)
    Non-compliance tolerance 5% of in-scope outputs, or 1 output, whichever is higher Same 5%/1-output tolerance carried forward

    Outputs still under a compliant embargo at the REF submission deadline are treated as policy-compliant, provided the embargo length itself sits within the applicable cap.

    What licence does REF 2029 require?

    The funding bodies do not mandate a single licence but state a strong preference for CC BY “or other licence formats meeting this standard of openness.” CC BY-NC, CC BY-ND and CC BY-NC-ND remain acceptable for outputs published between 1 January 2026 and 31 December 2028, provided the AAM deposit route otherwise meets deposit, discovery and access requirements.

    That flexibility is time-limited. Under the same guidance, from 1 January 2029, all future in-scope outputs must fully meet the open-licensing standard (effectively CC BY or equivalent), regardless of whether the output is published gold/diamond or shared via green deposit — subject only to the standard policy exceptions. Research offices planning publication strategy now should treat 2026–2028 as a transition window, not a permanent settlement.

    Why are monographs excluded from REF 2029 open access rules?

    REF 2029 carries no open access requirement for long-form outputs — monographs, book chapters and scholarly editions — because the funding bodies judged the monograph publishing ecosystem (specialist university presses, third-party image rights, translation licensing) not yet ready for a mandatory equivalent to the journal-article regime. The REF 2029 Open Access Policy and Consultation summary, published 11 December 2024, confirms that any long-form open access mandate is deferred to the assessment cycle after REF 2029, with implementation “no earlier than 1 January 2029.” Datasets, code and artistic research outputs are similarly welcomed but not mandated.

    Frequently asked questions

    What outputs are eligible for REF 2029 open access requirements?

    Only journal articles and conference contributions with an ISSN, published between 1 January 2021 and 31 December 2028, are in scope. Preprints without an ISSN, monographs, book chapters, datasets, code and artistic outputs fall outside the policy, though open sharing of the latter is encouraged rather than mandatory.

    What are the key changes for REF 2029 open access policy?

    The three headline changes from REF 2021 are a later deposit trigger (publication, not acceptance), shorter embargo caps (6/12 months instead of 12/24), and a stated preference for CC BY licensing during 2026–2028, tightening to a full open-licence requirement from 2029 onward.

    What is an open access policy in the REF context?

    An open access policy in this context is a funder-mandated condition of eligibility: outputs must be deposited, discoverable and free to read and download for anyone with internet access before they can count in a unit’s REF submission, independent of any journal paywall.

    How can institutions check whether an output meets REF open access requirements?

    Institutions cross-reference the deposit date, publication date, embargo length and licence recorded in their repository or current research information system (CRIS) against the applicable policy window, then apply the REF 2029 audit’s risk-based sampling approach — modelled on REF 2021, where ten institutions faced second-stage audit and four required data adjustments.

    What this means for research administrators

    Repository workflows built around REF 2021’s acceptance-date trigger need re-sequencing for the publication-date trigger from 1 January 2026, and embargo-tracking systems must be updated to the new 6/12-month caps to avoid outputs drifting into the 5%-tolerance band unintentionally. Because the REF 2021 audit found four institutions required data adjustments out of ten sampled at the second stage, and one required an output removed after substantive sampling, administrators should expect comparable scrutiny under REF 2029’s “broadly mirrored” risk-based audit approach, as set out in the REF 2029 guidance hub.

    The policy aligns deliberately with UKRI’s Open Access Policy for journal articles and conference proceedings, in force since 1 April 2022, and with the wider push for openness associated with cOAlition S — meaning institutions already compliant with UKRI grant conditions have much of the REF 2029 groundwork in place. For research administrators tracking related contributor and provenance standards, see CASRAI’s research administration resources and the open research dictionary for definitions of terms such as author accepted manuscript and green/gold open access.

    Outlook: the run-up to 2029

    Guidance for REF 2029 is not yet fully finalised: the guidance hub itself notes that modules “will be formally finalised in 2026” and may see small revisions before then, with the last substantive change to Section 5 recorded on 13 June 2025. Institutions should treat the current 6/12-month embargo caps and CC BY-NC-ND licence floor as the operative rules for 2026–2028 outputs while watching for the 2029 tightening to full open-licensing standards and the separate monograph mandate expected for the cycle beyond REF 2029.