REF 2029 Code of Practice
Our Code of Practice will set out how we make some of the key decisions that are required in preparing the REF 2029 submission. It is currently under review and the final version will be published later this year.
Key decisions set out in the Code of Practice include:
Which staff contracts to include in the volume measure:
The volume measure is a calculation made by the university to determine our capacity for research and therefore the scale of our REF submission. Whether an individual's contract is included in the REF volume measure, or not, does not have any impact on the career of the individual.
At Imperial, all our academic staff are expected to teach and to undertake research, and so their contracts are automatically included in the volume measure.
Some staff contracts in the research job family are considered ‘research independent' for REF purposes. There are specific criteria for research independence in this context laid down as part of the REF rules, with limited discretion for Imperial, and have no bearing on an individual’s career progression. More detail about how research independence decisions will be made can be found in the Code of Practice.
Which Unit of Assessment to allocate each contract to:
In many cases, the UoA to which a staff contract is allocated to will be determined by departmental affiliation. However, some departments conduct research which can be mapped to more than one UoA, and some contracts are attached to individuals who conduct cross-disciplinary research. Faculty and UoA Leads will be responsible for agreeing UoA allocation in these cases.
Which research outputs to submit:
Imperial will be required to submit 2.5 outputs per FTE included in the volume measure. However, not every individual whose contract is included in the volume measure is required to have an output submitted, and outputs may be submitted by individuals whose contracts are not included in the volume measure, where other criteria are met. This is a key change from REF 2021.