Reviewing the REF Impact Case Studies and Templates: Executive Summary

This report shares the results of a long process of review and reflection. The story begins in 2012 when the NCCPE was invited by HEFCE to submit a discussion paper about assessing the impact of public engagement to inform the guidance for REF 2014. We were pleased to see this advice informing the guidance provided by the Main Panels. In the run-up to the REF we were able to run a number of workshops to help people develop their case studies and impact templates. After the submission process was completed, we conducted a ‘Lessons learned from the REF’ workshop in 2014. After the results were announced in 2015 and the case studies and templates were published online for all to browse, we spent many fascinating hours poring over the submissions. This report shares the key findings from that analysis and reflection – findings which we tested iteratively with the sector through a variety of workshops and events over 18 months.