Policy Exchange director says ditching REF in its proposed form could be a smart move
Any incoming Labour government should scrap the Research Excellence Framework rather than allow it to continue in its proposed 2029 form, the director of research at the Policy Exchange think tank has said.
Writing in a personal capacity on his X account (formerly Twitter), Iain Mansfield said that scrapping the REF was an “easy way for Labour to save half a billion”, and that—despite being a fan of previous REFs—he did not welcome plans for the next exercise, which will see more emphasis on the people, culture and environment strand.
“Better to abolish the REF than go ahead with the current plans on culture and environment,” Mansfield said.
Instead, Mansfield said quality-related funding—which is currently allocated based on REF results—should be allocated “proportionally to the amount of research grants won” overall.
“It already tracks it very closely,” he said. “You might need a few twiddles to the formula for edge cases.”
Speaking at Research Professional News live last week, Labour’s shadow science minister, Chi Onwurah, said she was “concerned about some of the bureaucracy associated with the REF” and stopped short of committing to retaining it in its current form.
PCE pilot
Mansfield was speaking in response to a post by Philip Cowley, professor of politics at Queen Mary University, London. “My ‘professional suicide’ opinion is that environment—however defined—shouldn’t be a part of the REF process at all,” Crowley tweeted.
“The REF should grade research outputs—publications and impact. Environment is an input. If a place has a good research environment, that will (or should) lead to good publications. If it doesn’t, it won’t.”
Cowley was in turn responding to a blog published on 21 March by Jessica Corner, executive chair of Research England—which co-ordinates the REF on behalf of the research councils of the UK. The blog confirmed that applications to take part in the PCE pilot are now open.
“Our aim is to co-design the people, culture and environment assessment process with the whole research community,” Corner said. “We want to be inclusive in our engagement, selecting a broad range of institutions to be involved, and a wide range of experience from individuals on the assessment panels.”
Writing for Research Professional News last year, director of research at Research England and chair of the REF steering group, said REF 2029 aimed to “create important, positive shifts in the research system”.
“To get the best out of our world-leading universities and their talented people, we need a dual focus: on outcomes and on the conditions to secure those outcomes for the future,” he said.
Plans to expand the weighting of the PCE section of the REF to 25 per cent were welcomed by many researchers when they were announced last year, however that proposal is now under review.