Research Excellence Framework

The Research Excellence Framework is the successor to the Research Assessment Exercise. It is an Impact evaluation; assessing the research of British higher education institutions. It was used in 2014 to assess UK research during the period 2008–2013.

In July 2016, Lord Nicholas Stern review was published, drafting general guidelines for the next REF in 2021. One of the recommendation was to increase research public engagement. Research engagement means enhancing delivery of the benefits from research. It also means making the public more aware of the research findings and their implications. One of the uprising way for public engagement is crowdfunding for research, where dedicated platforms host crowdfunding campaigns for university research, in a range of topics. Crowdfunding for research has two advantages: one, it is a source for a relatively high guaranteed funding, with a rate of around 50%, second, it is a very effective tool to engage with the general public.

In June 2007 the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) issued a circular letter announcing that a new framework for assessing research quality in UK universities would replace the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), following the 2008 RAE. The following quote from the letter indicates some of the original motivation:

Our key aims for the new framework will be:

The letter also set out a timetable for the development of the REF. HEFCE undertook a consultation exercise during September–December 2009, soliciting responses from stakeholders on the proposals. These include for example the response from Universities UK, and the response from the University and College Union.

In July 2010 (following the May 2010 general election), the Universities and Science minister David Willetts announced that the REF will be delayed by a year in order to assess the efficacy of the impact measure.

In July 2016, Lord Nicholas Stern review was published, drafting general guidelines for the next REF in 2021. In general, the review was supportive with the methodology used in 2014 to evaluate universities' research, however it emphasised the need for more engagement with the general public and the increase of number of case studies that undertook interdisciplinary approach. The Research-impact.org team at Loughborough University Business and Economic School have been experimenting with crowdfunding for research in order to increase the university's researchers' public engagement.

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