Home Research REF 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2014

Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2014

The University of Bedfordshire is home to world-leading research with direct societal, economic and cultural impact. This is recognised in the UK-wide 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF), and includes major areas of research such as advancing medical knowledge of serious and chronic disease, substance misuse, language assessment, and robotics technology that supports independent living. The REF recognises the University’s research success in both quality and quantity:

  • We have more than doubled our proportion of world-leading research
  • Nearly half of our research is considered world leading or internationally excellent
  • Three times as many University researchers were submitted compared to the previous assessment in 2008
  • We have world leading research in 9 units of assessment - up from just 5 in 2008
  • The number of staff judged to be world-leading or internationally excellent in research outputs has quadrupled

Full details of our success - Official REF profile

REF2014 research Excellence Framework

The Research Excellence Framework (REF) is the new system for assessing the quality of research in all disciplines in UK higher education institutions (HEIs). It replaced the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) 2008 and will be completed by mid-December 2014.

The REF is undertaken by the four UK higher education funding bodies: the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), the Scottish Funding Council (SFC), the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW) and the Department for Employment and Learning, Northern Ireland (DELNI).

Purpose

The primary purpose of REF 2014 is to produce assessment outcomes for each submission made by institutions that will be used to:

  • Inform research funding allocations by the four UK HE funding bodies
  • Provide accountability for public investment in research and produce evidence of its benefits
  • Provide benchmarking information and establish reputational yardsticks

Key Points

Expert sub-panels for each of 36 units of assessment (UOAs) will carry out the assessment, working under the leadership and guidance of four main panels. Each submission in each UOA contains a common set of data:

  • REF1a: Information on research staff in post on the census date, 31 October 2013, selected to be included in the submission.
  • REF1b: Individual staff circumstances data.
  • REF1c: Category C staff details.
  • REF2: Research outputs - details of up to four research outputs produced by each member of submitted staff during the period 1 January 2008 to 31 December 2013.
  • REF3a: Impact template describing the submitted unit's approach during the assessment period 1 January 2008 to 31 July 2013.
  • REF3b: Case Studies describing specific examples of impacts achieved during the assessment period, underpinned by excellent research in the period 1 January 1993 to 31 December 2013.
  • REF4a: Data on research doctoral degrees awarded each year in the period 1 August 2008 to 31 July 2013.
  • REF4b: Data of of external research income for each year in the period 1 August 2008 to 31 July 2013.
  • REF4c: Data of research income-in-kind for each year in the period 1 August 2008 to 31 July 2013.
  • REF5: Environment template for each submitting unit relating to the period 1 January 2008 to 31 July 2013

Overall Quality Profile

The overall quality profile will be produced by assessing three elements of the assessment – research outputs, impact and the research environment – to produce a sub-profile for each element. The three sub-profiles will be aggregated to form the overall quality profile for the submission, with each element weighted as follows:Outputs 65%, Impact 20%, Environment 15%

  • Outputs 65%
  • Impact 20%
  • Environment 15%

University of Bedfordshire's REF 2014 Units of Assessment

  • All of our research is internationally excellent in impact, and the majority is world-leading
  • All of our research is internationally excellent in impact, and the majority is world-leading
  • Over 80% of our research is internationally recognised
  • This is our largest research area. A large team of 39 researchers submitted their research, working on a range of areas, and 90% of their work is at internationally recognised level
  • All of our research has impact that is internationally recognised
  • Over half of our publications are world-leading or internationally excellent
  • All of our research has internationally recognised impact
  • More than two thirds of our research is internationally recognised and a quarter of this work is internationally excellent
  • We are a leading University in this research area (top quartile). All of our work has impact that is recognised as internationally excellent, 60% of which is world leading
  • More than three quarters of our research is internationally excellent or world-leading significantly higher than the sector in general (69% sector mean average, 64.5% median average)
  • More than half of our research publications are rated as internationally excellent or world-leading
  • All of our research has world-leading impact, and is rated as internationally recognised or better
  • More than two thirds of our research outputs in this area are world-leading or internationally excellent
  • 60% of our research is rated as internationally recognised or better.