Universities across the UK have been given the final submission guidance and panel criteria for the next national assessment of research, with entries due by noon on 24 November 2028.
The Research Excellence Framework, known as the REF, assesses the quality and impact of research in higher education. Its results inform the distribution of around £2 billion a year in public research funding. The exercise is run on behalf of the four higher-education funding bodies for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The publication on 11 November sets out what institutions must submit and how expert panels will assess their work. It also provides templates for a component that looks at the strategies, people and environments supporting research. The results are planned for December 2029 and will inform funding from the 2030–31 academic year.
Common criteria across disciplines
For the first time, the four main assessment panels have agreed shared criteria and definitions of research quality. They cover medicine, health and life sciences; physical sciences, engineering and mathematics; social sciences; and arts and humanities.
Each main panel oversees specialist sub-panels. There are 34 units of assessment, each with its own expert sub-panel. Universities submit work in the relevant subject areas, and the sub-panels examine the evidence under the direction of the main panels.
The common criteria are intended to make the assessment more consistent across disciplines. Supplementary criteria for particular panels will still apply where relevant, alongside the shared framework. The common approach does not change the quality expected at each starred level.
How the assessment is divided
Research outputs will account for 55 per cent of the overall assessment score under an element called contribution to knowledge and understanding. Engagement and impact, assessed through case studies, will account for 25 per cent. The remaining 20 per cent covers strategy, people and research environment.
These weightings were confirmed in an earlier policy update in December 2025. The latest documents add the final submission requirements and panel criteria rather than introducing the three-part structure for the first time.
The research-environment element asks institutions to explain how their strategies and practices support research, the people involved in it, and the conditions in which it takes place. Institutions will submit a statement covering the organisation as a whole, as well as a separate statement for each unit of assessment in which they enter work.
The templates allow space for institutions to describe their context and provide evidence on areas such as support for people, research infrastructure, collaboration and engagement. Panels will also receive quantitative data, including research income and doctoral degrees awarded, to inform their assessments.
The institution-level statement has a limit of 2,000 words for context and 8,000 words across four scored sections. The unit-level statement has the same overall limits, with its context section including descriptions of the research community and how the submission represents the unit.
Separate statements for smaller institutions
A proposal would have allowed institutions submitting in only one unit of assessment to use a single combined research-environment template. Following feedback from a sector survey, the funding bodies have decided not to take that option forward. All participating institutions will instead complete separate institution-level and unit-level statements.
The guidance recognises that smaller institutions may have fewer central policies or more overlap between institutional and unit-level practice. It says they are not expected to create new institutional strategies solely to complete the statements. Panels are to take account of the circumstances in which institutions with a single unit operate.
The institution-level and unit-level statements will be assessed separately. Their scores will also be combined for each submitting unit, with the institutional assessment making up 60 per cent of the combined research-environment profile and the unit-level assessment 40 per cent.
What happens next
Institutions are expected to be invited to make submissions from autumn 2027. Expert panels will assess the submissions during 2029. The assessment produces quality profiles for the submitted work; it does not itself announce how much funding an individual university will receive.
The published criteria include the basis for assessing the institution-level environment statements, but the separate panel responsible for that work is still to be fully appointed. Its detailed working methods are due to be published once the panel has been recruited.
Further audit guidance is planned for spring 2027. The team organising the exercise also expects to launch the submission system before the end of 2026, ahead of an initial deadline for special requests in the spring.
