REF 2029: what’s the story for public engagement?

REF 2029 represents a significant step forward from REF 2021, in the way it encourages HEIs to embed more strategic support for public engagement. The proposals are still being consulted upon and piloted, so there is still some uncertainty about exactly how the exercise will work when the final guidance is launched later in 2025. This briefing outlines the current state of play towards the end of 2024, and the opportunities for public engagement.

As REF 2021 ended, the UK Funders launched a major review of the future of research assessment to inform the development of the next REF. The Future Research Assessment Programme (FRAP) reported on a process of consultation and evidence gathering in June 2023, with a set of initial decisions and issues for further consultation. These were received with some concerns, especially about the proposed changes to the Environment profile. This led to the decision to postpone the REF from 2028 to 2029, and to run a pilot of the new ‘People Culture and Environment’ Profile.

The proposed new structure of the REF is shown above. We explain the most significant changes below. 

The initial decisions announced some significant changes to the Research Outputs profile.  

• A greater diversity of research outputs will be encouraged in REF 2028 – and the Outputs element will be renamed as ‘Contribution to Knowledge and Understanding’ to reflect this.
• HEIs will also now be expected to submit a structured explanatory statement, describing the institution’s wider contribution to knowledge and understanding in the disciplinary area.
• The Contribution to Knowledge and Understanding will make up 50% of the profile (down from 60% in 2021)
• There is an acknowledgement of the need for research outputs to reach diverse audiences, and not to be limited to conventional platforms and formats: ‘Reaching businesses, policymakers and citizens requires outputs in different formats, such as policy summaries or video or audio content'. 

The next REF will focus for the first time on the contribution of engagement to impact.

• The Impact element will be renamed as ‘Engagement and Impact’ to recognise and reward a wider range of impact-enabling activities
• Given the increased focus on engagement, the panels will be invited to consider the suggestion made by the NCCPE and others that the criterion of ‘rigour’ be added alongside ‘reach’ and ‘significance’. This will help to ensure that the appropriate focus is placed on the process of delivering impact
• An impact narrative will be reinstated to recognise and reward approaches to maximising the impact of research.
• The assessment of impact case studies will be supplemented by quantitative and qualitative evidence, focused on outcomes and supported by data where appropriate, which sets out the wider contribution of the research activities to society and the economy
• The requirement that the research underpinning impact case studies be of a minimum 2* quality will be removed, to encourage a broader base of underpinning research activity 

The most significant and certainly the most controversial proposed changes are to the Environment profile   

• The focus of the environment element will be expanded to People, Culture and Environment and it is proposed that it now makes up 25% of the profile (a significant increase from 15% in REF 2021). 
• There will be substantial changes to the way this element is assessed: a tighter questionnaire-style template is proposed. 
• The role of ‘Research-enabling’ staff will be more explicitly recognised. 
• Given sector concerns over these changes, a project to develop a set of indicators of ‘people, culture and environment’ was commissioned, in which the NCCPE is a partner. Its findings and recommendations will be published shortly. 
• A pilot exercise has also been announced, which is commencing at the end of 2024 and reporting in September 2025 

In our responses to the development of REF 2029, which you can find in our REF Collection, we have warmly welcomed the direction of travel it represents. We have identified three significant changes: 

•  Research as an open and inclusive endeavour, in dialogue with society: the definition of what counts as research is much broader, encouraging much more diverse approaches to building and sharing valuable knowledge 
•  Acknowledging the vital contribution of engagement to the creation of impact: for the first time, there is recognition that the processes of engagement need to be factored into assessing the social impact of research 
•  Putting people and culture front and centre: for the first time, supporting a healthy research culture is to be an underpinning principle of the REF, influencing all aspects of its design and conduct 

These changes reinforce the work that the NCCPE has been committed to enabling since we were established in 2008. They could help us to realise a paradigm shift in how the contribution of public engagement to research is understood and valued. 

We think that it is helpful to step back from obsessing over the details of the REF guidance, to consider the wider shifts in research culture and practice that it is encouraging. A helpful way to do this is to use a framework developed in the sociology of knowledge, which identifies three ‘modes’, or philosophical approaches, to the role of research in society. 

 These are: 

• Mode One knowledge (traditional academic research): Traditional, disciplinary, academically driven research 
• Mode Two knowledge (applied research): Context-driven, problem-focused, interdisciplinary research aimed at practical applications’ 
• Mode Three Knowledge (collaborative research): Integrative, holistic research emphasizing systemic innovation, co-creation of knowledge, and societal impact 

The diagram above represents the journey that the REF has travelled since 2014, and it’s shifting centre of gravity, away from Mode 1 and towards Mode 3:.  

• The RAE, which the REF replaced, was exclusively focused on the excellence of Research outputs (Mode 1) 
• REF 2014 – at the time, very controversially, introduced the assessment of impact (nudging us towards Mode 2) 
• REF 2021 – consolidated the focus on impact, increasing its weighting to 25%  
• REF2029 – has again shifted the dial, with a concerted focus on the underpinning culture of research and the need for more openness, inclusivity and people-centred practice (with the weighting proposed to rise from 15% to 25%). It has also evolved the Impact profile, refocusing this as ‘engagement and impact’ to recognise the vital contribution of engagement processes to the realisation of impact (moving more deliberately towards Mode 3) 

The shifts outlined above represent a significant opportunity to ‘make the case’ for the vital contribution of public engagement methods and practices to creating that more engaged and inclusive culture: 

•  PE enables us to build a more responsive and accountable research system that retains the trust and support of government and wider society
• It helps us to embrace innovation and change and to work in the more open and inclusive ways expected by the REF

There is still a lot to play for. The guidance is still being consulted on, and the PCE arrangements are being piloted. 

We are currently developing a separate briefing to share some tools and guidance which you can draw on to support conversations and development work within your own setting, focused on:

• How to make the case for public engagement as a critical capability for delivering against the ambition of REF 2029 
• How to address the new focus on the rigour of engagement, to enable the production of high-quality impact case studies featuring PE
• How to tackle the challenges of developing an excellent, inclusive research culture, building on the public engagement community’s expertise n supporting culture change
• How to begin to develop more sophisticated and strategic evaluation to underpin your submission 

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