REF 2021

REF is a review process of the research excellence of higher education institutions (HEIs) in England and Wales, carried out by Research England. Its purpose is to provide accountability for public investment in research and produce evidence of the benefits of this investment. Crucially, each institution's rating will determine their allocation of funding. The final ratings are made public, and will also affect the institution's reputation regarding the quality of their research. It is vital therefore, to put together the best possible submission.

REF assessments are carried out by expert panels for each of the 34 subject-based units of assessment (UOAs), under the guidance of four main panels. Expert panels are made up of senior academics, international members and research users. We are UOA 8 (Chemistry), which falls under Main Panel B (Physical sciences, engineering and mathematics). All panel membership and criteria can be found on the Research England REF 2021 website.

All staff with a contract of employment of .2 FTE (full-time equivalent) or greater, who are on the Department (or a College) payroll on the census date of 31 July 2020 will qualify, as long as their primary employment function is to undertake either "research only" or "teaching and research".

• Staff on teaching and research contracts must also have "significant responsibility for research."
• Staff on research only contracts must be independent researchers. 

Eligibility is determined by the Department REF Committee, who must follow the REF Guidance on Submissions, and apply the University of Cambridge Code of Practice (Raven password required) and the Department REF Committee Working Methods when making decisions. The Code of Practice contains clear, transparent and objective procedures for applying the REF rules and for appealing any decisions.

All research staff will be notified by the University REF office of their eligibility for REF. All notifications explain the eligibility rules and provide information on how to request a review or appeal the decision of eligibility. The Code of Practice contains provisions for equality, fairness, and confidentiality that must be followed in all of these steps.

Research outputs that are submitted must meet the REF 2021 Open Access policy as follows:

• Outputs accepted for publication from the 1st of April 2016 to 31 March 2018 must have been deposited in an Open Access research repository (eg, the University of Cambridge Apollo repository) as soon after the point of acceptance as possible, and no later than three months after the date of publication.
• Outputs accepted for publication from the 1st of April 2018 to 31 December 2020 must have been deposited as soon after the point of acceptance as possible, and no later than three months after this date.

Some exceptions may apply. For further information about REF and Open Access, please contact the University Open Access team at info@openaccess.cam.ac.uk, or visit the University of Cambridge Open Access web pages. 

The REF will assess the impact of excellent research undertaken within each submitted unit by requesting specific examples of impacts that have been underpinned by research undertaken within each unit over a period of time. The focus will be the impact of the unit's research, not of individuals or individual research outputs, although they may contribute to the evidence of impact. Impacts are assessed in terms of their reach and significance, and how they have contributed to the economy, society and culture within the UK and internationally. This means they exclude academic impact on research or on students and teaching.

Our Department will be submitting six to seven Impact Case Studies (depending on final staff numbers), which describe specific impacts that have occurred during the assessment period.

• The research which underpins the impact must have been produced within the Department between 1/1/00 - 31/12/20.
• The impact must have occurred between 1/8/13 - 31/7/20.