Feature
THE REF EXPLAINED What is the REF? The Research Excellence Framework (REF) is a national assessment of the research taking place across UK universities. Every six or seven years, institutions are asked to submit examples of their best research to be assessed by panels of academics and industry experts. Each of 34 subject areas is awarded up to four stars. The process is designed to ensure that public money is spent effectively. The framework is used by the four UK higher education funding bodies (Research England, the Scottish Funding Council, the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales, and the Department for the Economy, Northern Ireland) to assess the quality of research and to inform the distribution of around £2 billion of research funding per year to UK universities.
REF is an important source of funding for universities – Southampton received over £300 million from the last exercise – and the outcomes, for individual disciplines and the University as a whole, can affect our research reputation for many years.
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REF is an important source of funding for universities – Southampton received over £300 million from the last exercise – and the outcomes, for individual disciplines and the University as a whole, can affect our research reputation for many years, influencing our ability to recruit staff and students, and develop partnerships with organisations in the UK and overseas.
25%
3,200 OUTPUTS
5,000 PAGES
250,000 WORDS
About 25 per cent of the University’s research income is from funding resulting from the REF
The submission runs to over 5,000 A4 pages
We returned more than 3,200 outputs and over 100 Impact Case Studies
Our environment statements total more than 250,000 words
