Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021

For REF 2021, we submitted 3,432 staff, over 8,000 outputs, almost 200 impact case studies, 1,000 pages of documentation and over 2,000 pieces of evidence.

The REF is an assessment of all UK higher education research institutions and their research quality and excellence, and is run every six or seven years by the main UK funding bodies. The results impact the allocation of government funding for universities across the UK.

The UCL REF and Impact team worked with every single department over two years to collate our evidence – this year we submitted 3,432 staff, over 8,000 outputs, almost 200 impact case studies, 1,000 pages of documentation and over 2,000 pieces of evidence. 

The REF 2021 results placed us as second in the UK for research power, 93% of our research was graded as world-leading and internationally excellent, and we maintained our position as top in the UK for research power in the main panels of ‘medicine, health and life sciences’ and ‘social sciences’.

REF 2021 presentation

MediaCentral Widget Placeholderhttps://mediacentral.ucl.ac.uk/Player/aI9jFJcB

Dr Alison McAnena, Head of Research Impact, presenting at the 2022 PS Conference.