The preparation of the REF submission is a mammoth logistical and administrative task, involving teams from Departments, the four Faculties, Planning and Insight, Library Services, Research Office, People, Registry, Finance and ICT. To ensure that everyone has a shared understanding of our processes for REF 2029 and the principles that underpin them, and in accordance with the requirements laid out by Research England, we have developed a Code of Practice (CoP) that sets out our approach in detail. The CoP describes how we make key decisions, including on research independence for research only staff, choice of outputs, and allocation of outputs to Units of Assessment.
Our overarching aim is to demonstrate the excellence of Imperial's world-leading research, delivering a REF result which does justice to the hard work, dedication and excellence of our research community. Within that framework, and in line with REF guidance, we have adopted the following principles:
- Objectivity – wherever possible, we use data that has already been returned to Research England and other regulatory bodies for other purposes.
- Transparency – where we need to make decisions about what to return to the REF, we set out the processes through which those decisions are made using quantifiable metrics wherever possible.
- Inclusivity – we aim to make the REF submission inclusive of the diverse range of staff who undertake research at Imperial, and the diverse range of areas that they research.
FAQS:
FAQ's will be updated in early 2026.