The British Academy responds to the resuming of REF2029

The British Academy has responded to the latest announcement about the REF2029.

Professor Margot Finn, Vice President for Higher Education and Research at the British Academy, said:

“The restarting of REF2029 brings welcome clarity and allows universities to resume preparations with purpose.

We are pleased to see that the published framework worked on by the four funding councils effectively balances burden with ambition. It recognises the vital importance of research culture while ensuring indicators are robust, tested and appropriately weighted. The Academy welcomes the revised weightings for REF, a critical exercise that underpins the distribution of QR funding, funding which plays a significant role in supporting the humanities and social sciences.

The REF exercise also reminds us to celebrate the full spectrum of excellence – recognising outstanding research, talented researchers, and institutions throughout the sector. We commend structures that allow diversity and excellence to flourish, and which recognise that subject differences demand distinct approaches. The retention of portability for longer-form outputs is an excellent, and very welcome, example of this principle, of direct relevance to many of the SHAPE disciplines.

Going forward, we must remain committed to the vital principles of research assessment: benchmarking across all institutions, underpinning the fair distribution of QR funding, and valuing the full diversity of disciplines, outputs, and impacts.”

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