University makes 2021 REF submission

The University has today made its submission for the 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF).

The submission marks an important milestone in an effort that started nearly three years ago. It has been a truly collective endeavour: over a 100 colleagues have worked and consulted widely in preparing our submission - including academic colleagues and those working in many of our professional services.

The REF is undertaken by the four UK higher education funding bodies: Research England, the Scottish Funding Council, the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales, and the Department for the Economy, Northern Ireland.

The last REF assessment in 2014 confirmed our place as a world-leading research-intensive university. Ninety-eight percent of our research was classed as internationally recognised, and 78% of our research classed as internationally excellent. Twenty-seven per cent of our research was classed as world leading.

2021 submission

For our 2021 REF submission, we have put forward the work of 754 colleagues in 23 Units of Assessment, which involves 1622 research outputs and 72 Impact Case Studies.

We have earned over £250m of research income and given over 1900 doctoral awards in the seven years since the last REF.

Thank you to everyone who has been supporting our submission.

The REF panels will assess the submissions this year with outcomes expected in April next year.