CASRAI Dictionary

Tag: ref 2029 census period

  • 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 Census Date: No Single Date, New Rules

    REF 2029 has no single census date. Unlike REF 2021, which fixed staff eligibility to a single snapshot (31 July 2020), REF 2029 replaces the census-date model with a volume measure — an average full-time-equivalent (FTE) figure calculated from Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) data across two academic years, 2025/26 and 2026/27. Institutions will submit a pool of research outputs sized to that average, rather than assigning outputs to named individuals on a fixed date.

    This is the single most consequential structural change in the next Research Excellence Framework (REF), and it changes how research offices plan staffing data, HR coordination, and output collection for the 2027–2028 submission window. This guide sets out what changed, why, and what to track.

    What happened to the REF 2029 census date?

    Every previous REF cycle fixed staff eligibility to a single date. REF 2021 used a census date of 31 July 2020: whoever held an eligible contract on that day was in scope, and institutions submitted named individuals against specific outputs.

    REF 2029 abandons that model entirely. As Research Professional News confirmed in August 2024, the four UK funding bodies reminded the sector that institutions “will submit outputs, not staff” for the next exercise, meaning there is no census date in the REF 2021 sense. The change was formalised through the REF 2029 volume measure policy, published via the official REF 2029 site (2029.ref.ac.uk).

    How does the volume measure replace the census date?

    The REF 2029 volume measure is an average FTE figure drawn directly from HESA staff data, calculated across two academic years: 2025/26 and 2026/27. This average determines how many outputs an institution submits per unit of assessment — it does not require any single-day snapshot of who was employed and does not require institutions to name individual authors against outputs.

    The mechanism decouples output volume from individual staff attribution. Institutions submit a representative pool of outputs for a discipline rather than a one-to-one mapping between named staff and named outputs — the core reform behind the “not staff” framing the funding bodies used in 2024.

    REF 2029 key dates and submission timetable

    The REF 2029 team last updated the official project timetable on 10 December 2025. The exercise itself was renamed from REF 2028 to REF 2029 following a December 2023 policy decision that extended the assessment period, with results now planned for December 2029.

    Milestone Planned timing
    Volume measure period (HESA FTE average) Academic years 2025/26 and 2026/27
    Final guidance on submissions and panel criteria published Autumn 2026
    Survey of submission intentions opens / closes Spring 2027 / Summer 2027
    Submission window opens Autumn 2027
    Submission deadline; assessment phase begins Autumn 2028
    Publication of results December 2029
    Publication of submitted data and REF 2029 reports 2030

    The exercise was paused in autumn 2025 during criteria-setting, and weightings were reconfirmed in winter 2025 before guidance drafting resumed. Research offices should treat the autumn 2027 submission opening and autumn 2028 deadline as the two hard planning anchors, since HESA data collection for the volume measure is already underway across both reference years.

    Who counts towards REF 2029 staff eligibility?

    Because there is no census date, eligibility now works through two HESA-derived staff categories that feed the volume measure calculation:

    • Teaching and Research contract staff with “significant responsibility for research” — the precise definition is expected in the autumn 2026 final guidance.
    • Research-only contract staff classified as independent researchers under HESA reporting.

    A separate, broader eligibility route applies to research outputs themselves. Institutions may submit outputs from any staff member with a “demonstrable and substantive link” to the institution — including technicians, research managers, and other research-enabling roles — provided the individual holds at least a 0.2 FTE contract and research activity forms part of that role. The output eligibility window has been provisionally indicated by institutional REF teams (for example, the University of St Andrews) as running from 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2028, pending final confirmation in the autumn 2026 guidance.

    Answer-first Q&A

    What is the cut-off date for REF 2029?

    There is no single cut-off date for staff eligibility in REF 2029. The volume measure instead uses an average FTE calculated from HESA data across academic years 2025/26 and 2026/27. The output eligibility window is provisionally indicated as 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2028, pending final guidance.

    What are the key changes for REF 2029?

    REF 2029 replaces the outputs element with Contribution to Knowledge and Understanding (55% weighting) and the environment element with Strategy, People and Research Environment (20% weighting). Individual staff are no longer submitted; institutions submit representative output pools sized by the HESA-derived volume measure instead.

    Is it REF 2028 or REF 2029?

    The exercise is officially REF 2029. It was originally planned as REF 2028, but a December 2023 policy decision extended the timetable, and results are now scheduled for publication in December 2029 rather than the earlier target year.

    What publications are eligible for REF 2029?

    In-scope longform output types provisionally mirror REF 2021 definitions: published books, book chapters, edited books, and scholarly editions. Final panel-specific output criteria, including any changes to eligible formats, are expected in the autumn 2026 Final Guidance on Submissions and Panel Criteria.

    Implications for research offices

    The shift from a fixed census date to a two-year HESA average changes what research offices need to track and when. Priority actions:

    1. Verify HR/HESA data accuracy for 2025/26 now — errors in this reference year directly shape the institution’s volume-measure baseline and cannot be corrected retroactively once the period closes.
    2. Track the autumn 2026 Final Guidance publication for confirmed definitions of “significant responsibility for research” and “independent researcher.”
    3. Prepare Code of Practice documentation ahead of the survey of submission intentions (spring–summer 2027), which will require institutions to state early submission plans.
    4. Map research-enabling staff (technicians, research managers) against the 0.2 FTE and “demonstrable and substantive link” output-eligibility test, since this is a new, broader eligibility route absent from REF 2021.

    Institutions with strong research administration functions are better positioned to absorb this shift, since research administration teams already coordinate the HR, HESA, and output-tracking data flows that the volume measure depends on. The removal of a single census date does not reduce the compliance burden — it redistributes it across a longer two-year data-integrity window, with less room to correct late-discovered errors.

    With autumn 2026 guidance, spring 2027 submission-intention surveys, and the autumn 2028 deadline now fixed on the official timetable, research offices have a defined runway to align HESA reporting, staff contract classification, and output-tracking systems before the volume measure calculation window closes.