Staff Eligibility and the HESA Staff Return

It is now essential for REF purposes that the data we submit to HESA each year is accurate, as we expect to have to verify the REF status of all staff throughout the year, not just on a census date. The HESA year runs from 1 August to 31 July of any given year, and the submission is made in the early autumn.  Data can be reviewed and changes made at any time, but will need to be completed for each year and signed off annually, by the end of August.

Once the HESA return has been submitted, changes can no longer be made to that year, or any previous ones, even if back-dated changes are applied in the HR system.  

Information for all current staff should be reviewed periodically, and particularly when a contract changes, or at the start of any new research contract. Key information relevant to REF is:

1. Contract type; only staff on Research only and Teaching and Research contracts are eligible for inclusion in the REF 2029 volume measure (“Acempfun” in HESA). It may be that where this under-represents the research activity of teaching only or academic related staff, this might be appropriate for review. 

2. The independence status of staff on Research only contracts (“Resast” in HESA). This is either Independent or Not independent (ie. Research Assistant). 

3. Significant responsibility for research of staff on Teaching and Research contracts (“Sigres” in HESA). This is true by default for all independent research contracts but can by exception be removed when individuals are not research active, perhaps due to administrative or knowledge transfer responsibilities.

Many of the decisions above will have been made at the time of appointment and information added in the relevant sections of the Web Recruitment System and may not need to be changed.  However in more complex cases, determining significant responsibility for research and the point at which a researcher transitions to “independent research”, in conjunction with the University’s Code of Practice, may involve a degree of professional academic judgment.

The most common adjustment required is in regard to the independence status of an individual researcher.  Staff on Teaching and Research contracts are by default independent (as defined within the Code of Practice and the REF guidelines and cannot be defined otherwise, but staff on Research only contracts may not be.

The Code of Practice indicates where these decisions may be straightforward, based on role or grade, and provides Cambridge specific examples (para 28 to 32) but there will also be cases where individual review is required.  

The Research England guidance reads as follows: 

130. Research assistants are defined as academic staff whose primary employment function is ‘research only’, and they are employed to carry out another individual’s research programme rather than as independent researchers in their own right (except in the circumstances described in paragraph 129). They are usually funded from research grants or contracts from Research Councils, charities, the European Union (EU) or other overseas sources, industry, or other commercial enterprises, but they may also be funded from the institution’s own funds.
131. For the purposes of the REF, an independent researcher is defined as an individual who undertakes self-directed research, rather than carrying out another individual’s research programme.
132. Possible indicators of independence are listed below. Institutions should note that each indicator may not individually demonstrate independence and where appropriate multiple factors may need to be considered…The following indicators are considered appropriate by all main panels
• leading or acting as principal investigator or equivalent on an externally funded research project
• holding an independently won, competitively awarded fellowship where research independence is a requirement. An illustrative, but not exhaustive, list of independent fellowships can be found at www.ref.ac.uk, under Guidance
• leading a research group or a substantial or specialised work package.

A list of Research Fellowships commonly understood to include research independence as identified by the funding bodies and by the University is also provided as Appendix C (p30) of the Code of Practice.

Yes. Independence may also develop during a contract, for example Research England’s list of competitive research fellowships which require independence specifically allows for this “Those asterisked support the transition to independence. Applicants should demonstrate readiness to become independent and the award enables them to become so. It could be argued those at the start of an award are not 'independent' yet, but those well in the award may be.” https://www.ref.ac.uk/media/1030/c-users-daislha-desktop-list-of-research-fellowships-updated-22032019.pdf

An accurate understanding of when a researcher first became independent is also used to underpin the calculation of Early Career Researcher status which is submitted to HESA and thereby to REF, usually based on a date half-way through the REF cycle (i.e. four years before the census date for REF2014 and REF2021).

Where a clear decision on a member of staff cannot easily be reached using the guidance in the Code of Practice, it is recommended that this first be referred to your head of department or departmental research committee who can apply the necessary academic judgement, and clarify where ambiguous cases fall.  For independence decisions in particular, it may be useful to gather additional information with regard to the indicators of independence (see above) to inform their discussions. Any decision should then be recorded in the Staff Information System. 
If the case remains intractable or additional advice would be helpful, please request this via the Staff Information System by raising a request in the appropriate category. The SIS team will then refer this to the most appropriate person to provide a response.  Ultimately decision-making authority lies with the Pro-Vice Chancellor for Research. 

The Staff Information System used in the run-up to the REF 2021 submission has been reconfigured to provide a structured interface through which to request changes to the status of individual researcher, record decisions which may have been made, and add supporting documentation where necessary, which may later be presented at a REF audit. 

The Staff Information System blends information from the HR system (CHRIS) with contract information gathered from Colleges to provide a full picture of an individual’s research employment across the Collegiate University and their REF status at any time. This can be accessed via the REF Systems portal here on the basis of HR Reporting Units.  Access has been provided to Departmental Administrators, HR Business Managers and their nominees. To request access please contact researchinformation@admin.cam.ac.uk

Determining the REF related status of an individual involves a degree of professional academic judgment in particular to judge the point at which a researcher transitions to “independent research”. This task is administrative in provenance but has implications on the research and research environment of the institution.

The Staff Information System blends information from the HR system (CHRIS) with contract information gathered from Colleges to provide a full picture of an individual’s research employment across the Collegiate University. This data will also be used in Elements to provide access to the system, and in due course to inform the development of the outputs pool for the submission. 

Only staff on Research only and Teaching and Research contracts are added to the Staff Information System as standard, though other staff to whom this may have applied previously, or who were reviewed during the previous REF cycle may still appear in the lists. All staff with an active contract (as above) on or after 1 January 2020 have been included.  A field in the system indicates which staff have contracts which fall within the current HESA year and can therefore still be amended if necessary. Once the HESA return has been submitted, changes can no longer be made to that year, or any previous ones, even if back-dated changes are applied in the HR system.  

New starters will be added at the end of each calendar month, based on payroll information and an active contract with a research requirement.  If you would like to add someone more promptly, there is a button at the top of the staff list which will allow you to do so, similarly, if there is a member of College staff who you think we need to find out more about. This functionality can also be used to add an ineligible person to the list (for example someone currently on an academic related contract), in order to confirm this or request a change. 

You will need to provide the CRSID, Surname, Forename and affiliation (eg. faculty, department or college) for each individual. The system will then look for information from the HR data available on the next reconciliation and this may raise further queries for you to look at. You can add both current and past members of staff (Leavers) to this System.

The "Research Assistant" status of staff on Research only contracts can be set on appointment, in the Web Recruitment System. This should be done by reference to the guidance above for determining whether that member of staff is considered to be independent, in accordance with the Code of Practice and with reference to the PD33.

Note for CHRIS users; In the Web Recruitment offers process, a default value for Research Assistant status will be shown in the HESA section of Step 6 Appointment Request based on the pay rate attached to the vacancy. If the default status shown is incorrect, or if no default appears, please select the most appropriate status from the drop-down list. A value must be provided here; if you are unsure of the correct one, please consult the appropriate departmental contact responsible for the recruitment. 

For independent researchers, whether on Research only or Teaching or Research contracts, there is also a section in the Web Recruitment System which asks for Unit of Assessment. In the majority of cases, a default option is offered based on a standard mapping, which can either be accepted or changed.  Where this is not offered, the most appropriate value should be selected from the options available.  A full list of the Units in REF 2021 can be found here https://www.ref.ac.uk/panels/units-of-assessment/ (in 2021 Cambridge did not submit to any of the following Units; 3, 20, 24, or 34) and these will be used until any revised structure is announced.

Note for CHRIS users; The Unit of Assessment (UoA) is also required by the HESA Student return for for staff with responsibility for the supervision of post graduate students. All new academic and senior research appointments must have the UoA set. Some departments will have a direct relationship with a REF UoA (e.g. Earth Sciences or History), some will have a small number of staff for whom a different UoA will be more appropriate and some departments have no default value and staff will be assigned on a one to one basis based on academic discipline. The final character recorded in the REF2021 UoA field is the letter denoting that multiple submissions were made in that department. A 'Z' suffix indicates that no multiple submission was made.

According to HESA, staff with significant responsibility for research are those for whom explicit time and resources are made available to engage actively in independent research, and that is an expectation of their job role. It may be appropriate at an even earlier stage to consider whether a particular contract type accurately reflects the responsibility for independent research involved in the position, and where for example the research activity of teaching only or academic-related staff may be under-represented. It is also highly advisable to consider the implications of "cloning" roles, extending existing ones, or filling an existing position when the new position or post-holder may have a substantially different level of responsibility for research, whether by the degree of independence required or perhaps due to a more administrative focus.

Unit of Assessment Allocation in the Staff Information System has been determined using the approach used for REF2021, ensuring that each researcher is allocated against a single UoA.  This is typically determined with consideration of the employing or affiliated department. Current allocations are not final.  We do not yet know which UoA will be included in any future exercise (and they have changed between each previous exercise). However, feedback received during the review of processes for REF 2021, highlighted the importance of maintaining meaningful records throughout the current cycle, which can provide a starting point for internal discussions in the lead up to the next REF.

Final allocation is subject to change up to the point of submission and will be determined closer to the submission date for the next exercise.  However, If you think that the current allocation represents a significant error (e.g. does not reflect a recent change to an individual’s contract or their "home" department) please raise a 'Move UoA' change request*.  Otherwise, more nuanced concerns can be reviewed closer to the next submission deadline following the publication of the Guidance on Submissions and the development of the University’s Code of Practice. 

*This request will be referred to the “receiving” UOA specified, via their private Teams channel, and the change will be made in the Staff Information System if consent is given. If there is disagreement, the change will be left “pending” until new guidance and/or more formal UOA structures and processes are in place by which the case can be resolved appropriately. Please note that, in this interim period, the UOA allocation is used only in internal reporting and to determine the allocation of PhD students to UOA in the HESA Student Return by reference to the UoA of their supervisor.