The University’s final Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) for its submission to the latest Research Excellence Framework (REF 2021) has been published.
An initial EIA was produced during the University’s preparations for REF 2021 to help identify where discrimination may inadvertently occur, differential impact on particular groups, and where a policy or practice has a positive impact on the advancement of equality. The final EIA was produced following our REF submission.
The EIAs included a qualitative analysis of the policies and procedures for the selection of research outputs, and a quantitative analysis of the protected characteristics of staff who contributed to the outputs pool. Each of the key stages in the selection of outputs was considered and the findings of the EIAs used to inform the final selection of outputs for submission.
The final EIA identifies interventions that were made throughout the REF preparations to ensure fairness. It also makes a series of recommendations to prevent any discrimination and to advance equality in future.
Professor Mark Spearing, Vice-President (Research & Enterprise), said: “The publication of our final Equality Impact Assessment provides transparency for the processes the University took to submit its best research to REF 2021 while ensuring the highest standards of equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) were met. I would like to thank the University’s REF EDI Committee for their work in undertaking the EIAs, in particular Professor Jane Falkingham, who chaired the committee, and Gemma Fitzsimmons who undertook the analyses and authored the document.”
The University’s REF Code of Practice has also been published. It outlines the decision-making processes for REF 2021 in the context of the principles and legislation around EDI, and actions that have been taken since 2014 to promote and invest in EDI.
You can find our final Equality Impact Assessment and Code of Practice on our REF website.
If you have any questions, please contact the University’s REF team at [email protected].
