I’ve just been to a presentation by our pro vice chancellor, Brigid Heywood, on the REF that will be used to assess our research over the next few years. Although the REF takes place in 2013, all applications must be in at some point in 2012 – so anything we want included needs to be written in the next year in order to allow time for publication.

Key words in the REF are excellence, impact, transformation, portfolio and engagement.

Excellence The REF replaces the Research Assessment Exercise, which was concerned with quality. Now we move beyond quality to excellence. Not only must we be excellent – we must also demonstrate that we are excellent. And we can’t be excellent in isolation – because the REF is about working in a unit, and is about the sustained performance of the group. The focus is on individual excllence within a group.

Impact will be assessed through a case-study approach and will be concerned with the extent to which our group builds on excellent research to deliver demonstrable benefits to economy, society, public policy, culture and quality of life. Impact is not about impact within the university or on our students – it has to be wider than this.

Transformation Impact will be linked to reach (how widely the impacts have been felt) and to significance (how transformative the impacts have been).

Portfolio Each unit needs to have a portfolio of high-quality, original and rigorous research. This should demonstrate that we have shared our findings effectively with a range of audiences. It should also demonstrate that we build effectively on excellent research through a range of activity that leads to benefits to the economy and to society. We must offer a high-quality, forward-looking research environment. We must provide evidence of significant contributions to the sustainability and the viability of the research base – and we must actually be sustainable, not just planning to be sustainable.

Engagement is very important – and appears on every page of the document.

Portfolio

Engagement