The REF (Research Excellence Framework) - Introduction

The 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF) is a peer assessment of the quality of UK universities' research in all disciplines. It replaces the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), last conducted in 2008. 
The REF was undertaken by the four UK higher education funding bodies, who will use the REF results to distribute research funding to universities on the basis of quality, from 2015-16 onwards.
154 UK institutions made submissions in 36 subject-based units of assessment (UOAs). The submissions were assessed by panels of experts, who produced an overall quality profile for each submission. Each overall quality profile shows the proportion of research activity judged by the panels to have met each of the four starred quality levels defined below, in steps of 1%. More...