Impact pilot exercise

During 2010 the REF team ran a pilot exercise to test and develop proposals for assessing the impact of research in the REF.

The pilot exercise involved 29 UK higher education institutions submitting evidence of impact to be assessed by pilot expert panels in five REF units of assessment.

Outcomes of the pilot exercise

The key findings of the pilot exercise were published in:

• Findings of the pilot expert panels (November 2010)
  This report from the chairs of the five pilot expert panels sets out their findings and recommendations for the assessment of impact in the REF.
• Feedback from the higher education institutions involved in the pilot (November 2010)
  This report from Technopolis Group provides feedback from the 29 pilot institutions on the experience of making their impact submissions to the pilot exercise.

Following the completion of the pilot exercise, the four UK higher education funding bodies announced their decisions on the assessment of impact in the REF (REF 01.2011).