Created: 21 September 2026
Purpose of the panel
The IL SPRE panel provides leadership on the assessment of SPRE at institution level and will deliver the IL SPRE assessment of all institutions making submissions to REF 2029.
Responsibilities
The IL SPRE panel hold responsibility for:
- finalising the panel working methods for the assessment of SPRE at institution level
- ensuring adherence to the criteria and working methods
- working with the REF 2029 advisory panels throughout the exercise
- liaising as appropriate with the sub-panels to moderate scoring at institution and unit level and ensure the consistent application across the framework of the overall assessment standards
- evaluating submissions rigorously and fairly against the established criteria, providing confidential feedback on submissions
- signing off recommended assessment outcomes for all IL SPRE statements submitted to REF 2029. The main panels and the IL SPRE Panel will each be responsible for assuring the quality, consistency and robustness of the assessments within their respective remits. The chairs of the main panels and the IL SPRE Panel will then meet collectively near the conclusion of the assessment phase to review the overall outcomes of the exercise. Proposed assessment outcomes will be confirmed through the REF 2029 governance mechanisms
- acting as ambassadors for REF 2029, championing the exercise with the research community
- providing advice as requested by the REF team and the four UK higher education funding bodies on aspects of the assessment process
- producing a final report on the state of research environments in the institutions covered by the REF, and making recommendations for future UK research assessment exercises
Panel membership
Applications for Panel Chair closed at 11:59pm on Friday 18 September 2026. We are working on the next stages of selection. Once in place, we will recruit for the full panel membership. This will be announced on our news pages and communicated to our email subscribers.