HEFCE Launches REF Consultation

The Higher Education Funding Council for England has published its recommendations on the nature and structure of the forthcoming Research Excellence Framework, the successor to the RAE:

Consultation on the development of the REF

The consultation runs until the 16th December.

We’ll publish more when we’ve had a chance to digest the document, but at first glance it confirms that the three criteria against which all research will be assessed are Outputs, Environment (e.g. PG students and income), and Impact. The timetable states that HEIs will submit in 2012 and the assessment will run in 2013 to inform funding from 2014.