- Final Guidance on Submissions and Panel Criteria and Working Methods confirmed, giving institutions clarity to prepare submissions ahead of the November 2028 deadline
- For the first time, all four main panels have agreed shared criteria and quality definitions, as part of a ‘one REF’ approach to consistency across disciplines
- Strategy, People and Research Environment (SPRE) templates published
Today, the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2029 team has published the final Guidance on Submissions and Panel Criteria and Working Methods, giving institutions clarity to prepare their submissions ahead of the deadline in November 2028, and confirming the criteria that expert panels will use to assess the quality, impact and health of research across every UK nation and discipline.
REF 2029 assesses the excellence of research in UK universities, and the results inform the allocation of around £2 billion in public research funding each year.
Helen Cross, Chair of the REF 2029 Steering Group and Director of Investment and Research, Scottish Funding Council said:
“UK universities are vital to the country’s future prosperity, driving knowledge and innovation, and delivering real impact felt across the UK and the world. Across every discipline, researchers are producing work with weight and consequence far beyond the walls of any single university. REF is a powerful tool to understand the breadth and scale of what UK university research delivers.”
The REF ensures accountability for public investment and provides critical insight into the health and impact of UK research. The REF is led by the four UK higher education funding bodies: Research England, the Scottish Funding Council, Medr, and the Department for the Economy, Northern Ireland. Together, they support a research system that is world-leading across the full breadth of research, from fundamental discovery to applied innovation, and that delivers for society, the economy and our understanding of the world.
The REF panels, supported by the Secretariat, who together represent the sector and bring diverse expertise, have developed clear and robust criteria for assessing research supported by UK universities, grounded in operational realities and responsive to the rapidly changing context for higher education. Today’s publications are the product of extensive work by the expert REF panels and Secretariat, the funding bodies and the REF team, and engagement with the sector.
The panels have worked to ensure greater consistency for institutions preparing submissions across different disciplines by agreeing shared language and interpretation across all four main panels as much as possible. This includes a consistent approach to quality definitions that makes the criteria more inclusive of the full diversity of disciplines and research practices they cover, rather than a change to quality expected at each starred level.
This commitment to fairness runs through the criteria more widely. They are designed to be sensitive to disciplinary and interdisciplinary context, so that excellence is recognised wherever it is found. This reflects the REF’s underpinning principle that all forms of research output are assessed on a fair and equal basis, with no single format regarded as of greater or lesser quality than another. The principle extends to the people behind that research: the framework for REF 2029 means more contributions can be recognised, reflecting a research community that values everyone who helps build the UK’s research base, not only those who have traditionally been easiest to credit.
The final Strategy, People and Research Environment guidance published today includes templates for institution-level and unit-level submissions to this element. The templates have been shaped through extensive work by the panels, including an institutional-level working group of panellists led by Main Panel C Chair Professor Jane Falkingham, and engagement with the sector. They set out how institutions and units can evidence how their strategies support the people and environments that produce excellent research, engagement and impact. Also confirmed are the quantitative data panels will use to inform their assessment, updated from REF 2021, reflecting feedback from the panels and the sector. Following feedback from this summer’s sector survey, the funding bodies have decided not to proceed with a proposed option for single-UoA institutions to submit a single, combined template. To ensure parity, all institutions will complete both statements, which will continue to be assessed separately. Panels will be sensitive to the specific context in which single-UoA institutions operate.
Today’s publication also confirms the approach to submitting research that spans more than one subject area, details on the process developed with HESA for amending REF-specific fields within the 2025 to 2026 HESA Staff record, and the approach to special requests, covering circumstances such as major unforeseen events, equality-related unit reductions, or security-classified research. Detail has been added to the REF Timetable, with audit guidance planned for spring 2027. The REF team expects to launch the Submission system before the end of the year in readiness for the first special requests deadline in spring.
Panel Chairs on REF 2029
Professor Louise Kenny CBE, Chair of Main Panel A – Medicine, Health and Life Sciences
“We fund research because it matters for people’s lives, and that means we owe it to them to fund it with care, and to back the very best of it, through public accountability. The final guidance and criteria published today give our institutions exactly what they need to demonstrate that excellence.”
Professor Tom Rodden, Chair of Main Panel B – Physical Sciences, Engineering and Mathematics
“The UK is a world leader in research, and in how it assesses that research. Other countries look to the REF as a model for doing it rigorously and fairly. Government, funders and, most importantly, the public we serve can trust that university research investment keeps delivering where it matters most, and keeps the UK’s research base among the best in the world.”
Professor Jane Falkingham, Chair of Main Panel C – Social Sciences
“Having chaired the Institutional-level SPRE working group, the updated Strategy, People and Research Environment guidance published today puts something I’ve long believed into practice: that excellent research doesn’t happen by accident, it depends on the strategies, the people and the environments that make it possible. If the UK wants to keep leading the world in research, we have to properly recognise, assess and reward what produces and sustains that excellence; REF 2029 aims to deliver just that.”
Professor Greg Walker, Chair of Main Panel D – Arts and Humanities
“REF 2029 has introduced important changes to the way in which research and research culture will be assessed, including decoupling individual researchers from assessment of the research process and the evolution of Research Environment into SPRE. But REF’s purpose remains the same: to recognise excellence in research wherever it is to be found, regardless of academic discipline or institution type, and to identify and reward the diversity of ways in which research is conducted, its results shared, and its benefits felt across regions, sectors, and communities. At a very difficult time for the sector, the chance to recognise the collective strength of UK research couldn’t be more timely. “
Professor Alis Oancea, Chair of the Research Diversity Advisory Panel
“Research diversity is fundamental to research excellence. REF 2029 is committed to recognising and rewarding the full breadth of excellent research, across different research practices, types and formats of outputs, forms of impact and engagement, and the environments that support them. The Research Diversity Advisory Panel (RDAP) has worked to help embed this commitment in the assessment process. These panel criteria and working methods mark an important step in ensuring that excellent research, whatever form it takes, is recognised and assessed fairly and on its own terms.”
Professor Simon Macklin, Chair of the People and Diversity Advisory Panel
“Across the UK, research excellence depends on our research communities, built and sustained by people in a wide range of roles, from diverse backgrounds and at every career stage. The People and Diversity Advisory Panel has worked hard to help shape guidance that recognises those contributions more fully. Its publication today marks the beginning of a process. While words on a page cannot ensure inclusion or recognition, our continuing task is to turn these commitments into practice, learn from people’s experiences and build more inclusive research communities for the long term.”
Further information
Today the REF team publishes:
- the final Guidance on Submissions, including:
- updates to the Contribution to Knowledge and Understanding (CKU) guidance, including the process for amending REF-related fields in the HESA Staff record
- updates to the Strategy, People and Research Environment guidance, including the institution-level and unit-level templates
- information on quality profiles, glossaries of outputs and research practices
- minor updates to the guidance on Engagement and Impact, Volume Measure, Open Access and Codes of Practice
- the final Panel Criteria and Working Methods
- more detail to the REF 2029 Timetable
We will be running a series of webinars on the latest updates. For opportunities to hear more, visit Get Involved.