Just one year since the results of the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2014 were announced, Universities and Science Minister Jo Johnson has launched a UK-wide review of university research funding, including future plans for the REF.
Lord Nicholas Stern, President of the British Academy and former World Bank Chief Economist, will chair the review assisted by a steering group of academic experts.
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills hopes the outcomes from the review will help to “cut red tape so that universities can focus more on delivering world-leading research” whilst ensuring the government gets the most return from its investment. In the recent Autumn Budget Statement, the Chancellor of the Exchequer protected the £4.7 billion annual science and research budget in real terms during this Parliament.
The review, targeted for publication in the summer of 2016, will:
- investigate different approaches to the evaluation of UK higher education research performance to strengthen the focus on research excellence and impact while reducing administrative burden
- draw on evidence from the evaluation of the last REF in 2014 and considering other models of research performance assessment
- provide options for future iterations of the REF with a focus on a simpler, lighter-touch method of research assessment
Professor Judith Petts, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research and Enterprise), said:
“We welcome this review and hope to be able to contribute to it. While REF 2014 confirmed Southampton’s world-leading research ranking, the University is keen to support discussion of different options for measuring research performance as the costs of preparing REF submissions on a relatively frequent basis are high.”