CASRAI Dictionary

Tag: Research Excellence Framework 2029

  • 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 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 Panel Members: Who Sets the Criteria

    REF 2029 panel members are the academics, practitioners and non-academic experts appointed to the four main panels and 34 sub-panels that will set discipline-level assessment criteria and judge institutional submissions for the UK’s next Research Excellence Framework. Recruitment ran through open application in 2024–2025 — a first for the REF, replacing the nomination system used in REF 2021 — and the panels appointed under that process are now the body directly shaping the criteria, after a short government-ordered pause in autumn 2025.

    REF 2029 is the UK’s next national research assessment exercise, run jointly by the four UK higher education funding bodies to allocate around £2 billion a year in quality-related research funding to higher education institutions based on the quality of their research outputs, impact and environment.

    What Is REF 2029 Panel Recruitment?

    Panel recruitment is the process by which 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 — appoint the experts who will run REF 2029. There are two panel types.

    • Main panels (four in total) set the overall approach and criteria for assessing outputs, impact and environment within their disciplinary area, and approve final assessment outcomes.
    • Sub-panels (34 in total, one per Unit of Assessment) develop discipline-specific criteria and carry out the detailed assessment of institutional submissions.

    Each main panel includes its sub-panel chairs plus members with interdisciplinary, international and non-academic expertise. This structure mirrors REF 2021, but the route into panel membership does not.

    How Were REF 2029 Panel Members Recruited?

    For the first time in the REF’s history, every panel role was filled through open application rather than nomination. REF 2029’s own account of the process says this was designed “to support more transparent and consistent processes whilst removing barriers to application for everyone,” shaped with sector bodies and the REF 2029 People and Diversity Advisory Panel (PDAP).

    Recruitment moved through four stages:

    • Main panel chairs were recruited and confirmed first, ahead of the wider sub-panel campaign.
    • Sub-panel chairs and deputy chairs for all 34 Units of Assessment were then recruited, with applications for panel and sub-panel member roles closing by 28 April 2025, as the Royal Economic Society reported at the time; the appointed chairs and deputy chairs were announced on 22 May 2025.
    • Full panel membership — the wider pool of sub-panel members and assessors — was announced on 4 September 2025, described by the REF team as a “highly qualified and diverse group of experts” appointed across all 34 UoAs, including over two dozen panellists from industry, policy and third-sector organisations.
    • Further targeted recruitment is scheduled for 2027, informed by a sector-wide survey of submission intentions and any gaps in panel expertise identified during criteria setting.

    Shortlisting expertise was drawn from the REF Steering Group, relevant sector bodies and, once appointed, the panel chairs themselves. Applicants could optionally complete a diversity survey; that data was stripped from applications before assessment, in line with UKRI processes, and will be reported on separately in early 2026.

    Who Are the REF 2029 Main and Sub-Panel Chairs?

    The 34 sub-panels sit beneath four main panels, each covering a broad disciplinary group:

    • Main Panel A — Medicine, Health and Life Sciences
    • Main Panel B — Physical Sciences, Engineering and Mathematics
    • Main Panel C — Social Sciences
    • Main Panel D — Arts and Humanities

    For example, Sub-panel 1 (Clinical Medicine) is chaired by Peter Openshaw of Imperial College London, with Diana Eccles of the University of Southampton as deputy chair — one of 34 discipline-specific leadership pairs confirmed across the exercise. A small number of deputy chair appointments, including for Chemistry and Computer Science and Informatics, were finalised slightly later. The full, current roster for every Unit of Assessment sits on REF’s own panels pages rather than reproduced here, since composition is periodically refined through further recruitment rounds to 2027.

    What Does Panel Recruitment Mean for the REF 2029 Criteria?

    The timing of panel recruitment matters because it happened before a significant interruption to the criteria-setting timetable. In September 2025, UK Science Minister Lord Vallance announced at the Universities UK conference that the four funding bodies would pause criteria setting and final guidance “to take stock, ensure alignment with government priorities… and reflect on feedback from the sector.” The panels — chairs, deputy chairs and members — had already been appointed that same day, so they could begin criteria-setting work the moment the framework was confirmed, without a second recruitment cycle.

    When the pause concluded, the funding bodies published updated policy that changed how REF 2029 will actually be weighted:

    Assessment element REF 2021 weighting REF 2029 weighting
    Outputs / Contributions to Knowledge and Understanding (CKU) 60% 55%
    Engagement and Impact (E&I) 25% 25%
    Environment / Strategy, People and Research Environment (SPRE) 15% 20%
    Panel member selection route Nomination Open application

    SPRE replaces the previously trialled “People, Culture and Environment” element and builds on the REF 2021 Environment component, informed by a PCE pilot report published alongside the update. A recommended maximum of five outputs per researcher was reinstated, the minimum-of-one requirement was dropped, impact case study requirements were reduced to one for the smallest units, and the 2* qualifying threshold for underpinning research was removed.

    One further governance point deserves attention: the funding bodies confirmed there will be no formal consultation on the final guidance or the Panel Criteria and Working Methods, in order to hold the original REF 2029 timetable. That leaves the already-recruited panels — not a fresh sector-wide consultation round — as the primary mechanism through which discipline-level detail gets finalised. Panels began meeting in early 2026 to set criteria, which is why who sits on them, and how they got there, is now a governance question with direct consequences for submission requirements.

    Answer-First Questions on REF 2029 Panels

    What are the key changes for REF 2029?

    REF 2029 introduces Strategy, People and Research Environment (SPRE), weighted at 20%, replacing the trialled “People, Culture and Environment” element. Contributions to Knowledge and Understanding is weighted 55% and Engagement and Impact 25%. Outputs remain decoupled from individuals, and unit-level statements have been removed to reduce sector burden.

    How many units of assessment are there in REF 2029?

    REF 2029 retains 34 Units of Assessment (UoAs), unchanged in number from REF 2021. Each UoA is assessed by an expert sub-panel operating under one of four main panels covering medicine and health, physical sciences and engineering, social sciences, and arts and humanities.

    Who runs the REF?

    The REF is run by a REF team managed by Research England on behalf of the UK’s four higher education funding bodies — Research England, the Scottish Funding Council, Medr, and the Department for the Economy, Northern Ireland — who jointly own it as a UK-wide programme of national research assessment.

    What is engagement and impact in REF 2029?

    Engagement and Impact (E&I), weighted 25% of the overall score, assesses the demonstrable benefit research has beyond academia. Impact case study requirements have been reduced to one for the smallest submitting units, and the previous 2* qualifying threshold for underpinning research has been removed.

    Implications for Institutions and Researchers

    Three practical points follow for research administration teams. First, panel composition is now discipline-owned: sub-panels, not a single central body, are writing the detailed criteria for each Unit of Assessment, so institutional REF contacts should track guidance at sub-panel level, not just headline main-panel weightings.

    Second, with no formal consultation round on the final guidance, engagement now runs through REF Talks, town halls and sector-body channels rather than written consultation — institutions wanting influence need to use those live channels while criteria setting is underway.

    Third, the 2027 top-up recruitment round means panel composition is not fixed until closer to the assessment phase; institutions with relevant expertise, including professional services staff, technicians and librarians (recruited into REF 2029 panels for the first time), retain a further opportunity to apply.

    Taken together, the shift to open recruitment and the post-pause weighting changes mean REF 2029’s criteria are being finalised by a panel population that looks structurally different from REF 2021: more open in its selection, more heavily weighted toward research environment, and operating with less formal sector sign-off. For research administration teams preparing Code of Practice submissions, that makes early, sub-panel-level engagement more valuable than in any previous REF cycle.