The Research Excellence Framework (REF) has become a major part of the higher education research landscape, informing the allocation of around £2billion of research funding each year. It’s a major undertaking for all participating universities, impacting on almost every aspect of research strategies.
While the REF is yet to be universally embraced throughout higher education, none can ignore the fact that it has introduced a new level of accountability for the public money that’s invested in university research and embedded the idea of impact in institutions. All of us at Showrunner are strong believers that public policy is vastly improved through the input of academic expertise so a lot of our work is built around helping academics to achieve policy impact.
The ‘impact agenda’ was given fresh impetus in June when the Future Research Assessment Programme (FRAP) – represented by the research funding councils for all four nations in the UK – published its initial proposals for REF 2028.
The proposals are still subject to consultation but they point to some changes for REF 28 that could influence how policy impact is understood and supported over the coming years. We’ve explored these possibilities in a new paper ‘REF 2028 and the Future of Policy Engagement’. The paper unpacks what the new guidelines mean for and sets out a range of ideas to help guide approaches to policy engagement – with the aim of helping academics and support staff to achieve a positive impact on policy that will be recognised in REF 2028.
We invite everyone to download and read ‘REF 2028 and the Future of Policy Engagement’ using the button below. We’d also love to speak about it and the ways in which we support academics to achieve policy impact, so please do get in touch if you would like to have a chat! Feel free to drop a note to mark on mark@showrunnercomms.com