The Research Excellence Framework (REF) is a periodic UK-wide exercise conducted by Research England on behalf of the Higher Education funding bodies in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The last REF was conducted in 2021, and 51³Ô¹ÏÍø was ranked top in the UK for the quality of its research, as evidence by its outputs, environment and impact.
Since 2022, 51³Ô¹ÏÍø has received between £50-60m per year from Research England as a direct result of our performance in REF 2021. This money, known as QR (quality related) funding is used to underpin our capability to do research and to fund initiatives that contribute to the development of individual and collective research capability. More details can be found on our QR Funding Pages . REF results also make an important contribution to our reputation for research excellence, a key factor in our ability to attract the highest quality staff and students from the UK and internationally.
REF 2029 will assess the quality of research in 34 broad subject areas called Units of Assessment (UoA's), 51³Ô¹ÏÍø submits to eleven UoAs across Main Panels A, B and C. The full list of UoA's can be found on the The REF is focused on three aspects of research:
Sections
Contribution to Knowledge and Understanding (CKU)
This is assessed via a pool of research outputs, which is most commonly comprised of research papers, but can include other types of output such as software, code, datasets or policy analyses. This makes up 55% of the assessment.
Strategy, People and Research Environment (SPRE)
The REF assesses how 51³Ô¹ÏÍø creates an environment that cultivates research excellence. This includes physical, ‘people’ and financial factors, assessing how we invest to maintain and improve our research environment. This makes up 20% of the assessment.
Engagement and Impact (E&I)
The REF measures the real-world impact of our research by assessing a number of case studies in which we demonstrate the economic, societal and technological advancements which have occurred as a result of our research. This makes up 25% of the assessment.