DEVELOPING IMPACT FOR #REF2021PROFESSOR ANDY MIAH

HOW REF DEFINES IMPACT

“Impact…may take many forms and occur in a wide range of [overlapping] spheres. These may include (but are not restricted to): creativity, culture and society; the economy, commerce or organisations; the environment; health and welfare; practitioners and professional services; public policy, law and services.”

TIMETABLE

June 2016 – Stern Review

Higher Education and Research Bill

December 2016 – HEFCE REF Technical Consultation

June 2017 – REF Guidance Published

November 2020 – REF Submission

HEADLINES FROM STERN REVIEW

“Impact is clearly one of the success stories of REF2014,”

“contributed to an evolving culture of wider engagement”

“relax the tight coupling between the number of staff submitted to a Unit of Assessment and the number of case studies required,”

“greater which may cross the boundaries of differentflexibilityto submit case studies units

HEADLINES FROM STERN REVIEW

all institutions submitting to the REF should be required to submit some ‘institutional’ level impact case studies which arise from multi- and interdisciplinary and collaborative work

“Recommendation 5: Institutions should be given more flexibility to showcase their interdisciplinary and collaborative impacts by submitting ‘institutional’ level impact case studies, part of a new institutional level assessment.

HEADLINES FROM STERN REVIEW

Recommendation 6: Impact should be based on research of demonstrable quality. However, case studies could be linked to a research activity and a body of work as well as to a broad range of research outputs.

Recommendation 7: Guidance on the REF should make it clear that impact case studies should not be narrowly interpreted, need not solely focus on socioeconomic impacts but should also include impact on government policy, on public engagement and understanding, on cultural life, on academic impacts outside the field, and impacts on teaching

ENVIRONMENT & IMPACT

‘Recommendation 8: A new, institutional level Environment assessment should include an account of the institution’s future research environment strategy, a statement of how it supports high quality research and research-related activities, including its support for interdisciplinary and cross-institutional initiatives and impact. It should form part of the institutional assessment and should be assessed by a specialist, cross-disciplinary panel.

'widening and deepening the notion of impact to include influence on public engagement, culture and teaching as well as policy and applications more generally’

ENVIRONMENT & IMPACT

Recommendation 9: That individual Unit of Assessment environment statements are condensed, made complementary to the institutional level environment statement and include those key metrics on research intensity specific to the Unit of Assessment.

the total weighting for impact does not comprise less than 20% in the next exercise.

HEADLINES FROM CHRIS HEWSON

individual sub-panels…are allowed freer rein to define what impact is ‘for them’

reassertion of the value of impacts on cultural life, via public engagement, and through pedagogy

The area of most considerable interest is Stern’s recognition of the oft-touted suggestion to merge the environment and impact templates.

HEADLINES FROM CHRIS HEWSON

actively fulfilling the need expressed by RCUK to move knowledge exchange out of the periphery, “embedding throughout the research base a culture in which excellent research departments consistently engage with business, the public sector and civil society organisations, and are committed to carrying new ideas through to beneficial outcomes”.

Case study eligibility

August 2013 July 2020 – ‘Impact period’

Links to ‘research’ undertaken at HEI

Linked to FTE count (?)

Tallies with research strategy

Not mapped to UoA at this stage

Links to ICZs

GROUP ACTIVITY

In pairs, describe what you see as the impact of your research. Map it out on paper

Your partner to feedback to the group (3 min)

CONSIDER: evidence chain for impact

Looking for ideas, including the very smallest

Move towards a consideration of how pieces fit

Full mapping / planning process can only begin when guidance is released

Potential for greater flexibility than REF2014