ESRC review: ‘Innovation-suppressing’ REF needs a rethink

REF has ‘dampened ambitions, curtailed creativity and hindered mobility of people, ideas and talent’

Urgent consideration must be given to how the Research Excellence Framework could better support interdisciplinarity and the mobility of people, ideas and talent, according to a review commissioned by the Economic and Social Research Council on research leadership in the social sciences.

According to Matthew Flinders, the review’s author and a professor of politics at the University of Sheffield, there is a need for more social scientists to develop leadership-related skills and experience—particularly in relation to interdisciplinary and collaborative research.