News

2 September 2025

Research England has open access requirements for the Research Excellence Framework (REF 2029). These apply to journal articles and conference proceedings published after 1 January 2021. From 1 January 2026 the requirements are changing. The University of Cambridge is committed to the principles of open research and expects all publications to be s…

2 September 2025

In 2024 we created a new REF2029 at Cambridge SharePoint site. This is now the main location which everyone at the University can use to keep up to date with information about REF. The site includes:What we know from Research England about REF2029How the University is preparing for REFGuide for new UoA ChairsTimetable for preparationsVideo guides a…

12 May 2022

Today the results of the REF2021 exercise were published by Research England, recognising the University’s position as a world leading research institution.Following publication, Professor Anne Ferguson-Smith, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research, said: “I would like to congratulate and thank everyone who has taken part in this year’s REF for all their…

11 January 2022

Research England announced on 6 January 2022 additional details on the arrangements for publishing the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021 results. These additional details follow the ‘Update on REF 2021 results publication dates’ published on 23 September 2021 and the conclusion of user research undertaken in Autumn 2021 to establish the user…

30 January 2021

In response to concerns raised by universities about increasing COVID effects, Research England announced on 21 January that the funding bodies have agreed additional measures to support final preparations for REF submissions. The measures are intended to support universities in addressing the challenges that have been identified following evidence…

7 December 2020

Research England have now published the membership lists for the expert panels that will assess submissions to the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021. Click here to view the panel membership lists: https://www.ref.ac.uk/panels/panel-membership/.Some further appointments are still to be made to fill remaining gaps in expertise, and the publish…

29 October 2020

Through the Guidance on Revisions, Research England invited Higher Education Institutions to submit revisions to their approved Codes of Practice incorporating necessary changes to timeframes as a result of the delay to the submission date. Accordingly, the University has updated its Code of Practice, extending the deadline for staff to make declar…

29 October 2020

Research England have now published the ‘Summary of survey responses on proposed modifications to the 2021 Research Excellence Framework’, this can be found here:https://www.ref.ac.uk/publications/survey-on-proposed-modifications-to-the-2021-research-excellence-framework/The following documents and pages have also been updated:·       FAQs page (Cl…

3 August 2020

The UK funding bodies put the REF 2021 exercise on hold on 24 March 2020, in recognition that institutions needed to divert staff resources to other critical areas, including for those working in clinical and health-related fields.  The REF 2021 has formally resumed from 31 July 2020, the full news item is available at: https://www.ref.ac.uk/news/r…

22 July 2020

Following the announcement by Research England that March 31st 2021 would be the revised submission date, a second webinar was held on Wednesday 24 June, setting out the proposed modifications for REF 2021. After the webinar, and to inform the REF development work, views were invited from the HE sector on mitigations proposed in support of the vari…

19 June 2020

Research England has confirmed the new deadline for the REF as 31 March 2021 for all elements and advised that the impact assessment period will be extended to 31 December 2020. The extension to the impact assessment period has been introduced explicitly to enable case studies affected by, or focusing on the current response to, COVID-19 to be asse…

19 June 2020

Following the previous consultation on proposed timetable changes for the REF, Research England will be running a further webinar at 10:00 on Wednesday 24 June to present proposals for additional modifications to REF 2021.  Alongside the revised timetable, the Funding Bodies are also considering a number of additional changes to the framework. The …

19 May 2020

Following the decision to put the REF ‘on hold’ and remove the submission date of 27 November 2020, Research England held a webinar on Tuesday 21 April to set out some of the resulting issues for initial comment.  To inform the REF development work, initial views were invited from the HE sector on two central issues for the revised exercise: the ti…

24 April 2020

A webinar was streamed live on Tuesday 21 April 2020, covering issues relating to the timing of the new REF2021 submission deadline, and the broad approach to taking account of the effects of Covid-19 on impact case studies.  The webinar set out the first issues and questions about the revised timetable, on which views are being gathered through an…

24 April 2020

The UK funding bodies announced on 24 March 2020 that in recognition that institutions are needing to divert staff resource to other critical areas, including for those working in clinical and health-related fields, the REF2021 exercise was being put on hold.  This means that the submission deadline on 27 November 2020 will no longer apply.  Howeve…