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/ref-2021-resumes-with-additional-guidance-on-covid-revisions.
Additional guidance documents have been published:
- The Guidance on Revisions to REF 2021: https://www.ref.ac.uk/publications/guidance-on-revisions-to-ref-2021
- Advice on Contingency Planning: https://www.ref.ac.uk/publications/advice-on-contingency-planning
Several pages on Research England’s REF 2021 webpages have been updated to indicate changes to processes and timeframes resulting from the change to the submission date. Significant changes can be found on:
- FAQs page: https://www.ref.ac.uk/faqs
- Timetable page: https://www.ref.ac.uk/about/timetable/
- Declaration of individual staff circumstances template: https://www.ref.ac.uk/guidance/data-management-guidance/
Members of the REF Office will in due course be in contact as appropriate to provide details of any impact this might have on the institutional submission.