Learning lessons from the REF
Now that Sussex has made its submission to the Research Excellence Framework (REF), it would be easy to put that to one side for 12 months while we await our results. But we are already taking the lessons learnt from the REF process and making changes now to improve the long-term management of research at the University.
Michael Davies, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research)
Throughout the course of our REF preparations, we noted that the approach to research assessment represented by the REF requires a degree of culture change within the institution.
Research strategy and performance should be managed consistently and pro-actively, instead of having a sudden upsurge in activity in the period of immediate preparation for a REF or equivalent exercise.
The whole national agenda for research policy and funding, together with our aspirations as an institution - as we work towards the objectives we have set in our new strategy for 2013-18 - are directing us towards being more strategic, more long-term and bigger scale in the way that we plan our research.
A big part of this is getting the right leadership and support structures in place.
Our new Sussex Research initiative is one of these long-term developments.
By providing funding and support that is sensitive to the research-development requirements of different disciplines, it is helping our academics develop research to the point where it can be externally funded.
This in turn helps faculty to enhance their research outputs and gain recognition, and should help us to achieve a necessary boost in research income. While increasing research resource is a priority, we have to ensure also that we maintain and improve quality across all our research and impact.
Sussex is an institution with many excellent, and some world-leading, areas of research but we still have some pockets that are below the ‘critical mass’. We need to do more to develop excellence in all areas and to ensure that it is sustainable for the long term.
Sussex has much potential for further development of research excellence and our new strategy sets out how we plan to deliver this.
And it is not by accident that the first chapter in this new strategy is about research and knowledge exchange.
We are putting in place mechanisms to more fully communicate and celebrate the positive impact of our research on the economy, health, society, culture, technology and public discourse.
A significant proportion of our future success in research rankings and funding will depend on our ability to capture and evidence the causal flow from research to its impact. Embedding permanent processes to do this will be a major part of our strategy, allowing us to catch impact in ‘real time’.
The REF has been a time-consuming and at times, I am sure, a frustrating experience but it has also been extremely valuable in terms of highlighting the structural gaps in how we manage our research at Sussex. Because of the lessons we have learned along the way, we are becoming a stronger institution, better able to compete against the world’s research heavyweights.
Our dedicated REF team - led by Dr Ian Carter (Director of Research and Enterprise), together with Dominic Dean (REF Manager), Saskia Gent (REF Impact Officer), Nicola Ashton (REF Administrator) and Jenny Money (final copy editor) - have done a fantastic job of managing the process of preparing our submission.
They and their colleagues in Research and Enterprise, the Library and IT Services have worked tirelessly with REF Leaders from each of the Units of Assessment, Heads of School, Directors of Research & Knowledge Exchange, Research & Enterprise Coordinators and authors of impact case studies to deliver our REF submission. My sincere thanks go to everybody who has been involved.
I hope you enjoy a well-earned break this winter.