Consultation on amending the REF 2021 timeline: our response

The Chartered ABS has responded to Research England’s initial survey on the possible options to revise the timeline for submissions to REF 2021 in light of the disruption caused by COVID-19.

The Chartered ABS believes that there should remain a single deadline for all elements of providers’ submissions but that it should be extended to 31 March 2021. A single deadline will be easier to manage and preparations are already well advanced at this point in the REF cycle. For impact evidence we advocate that 31 July 2020 is kept in place as the end of the assessment period, but there should be a case-by-case mitigation route for individual case studies that have been delayed by COVID-19 past this point.

You can read our response to the consultation in full here.