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Research

Impact

Impact is the new section of the REF which is weighted 20% of the final score, so it’s very important.

Definition

An effect on, change or benefit to the economy, society, culture, public policy or services, health, the environment or quality of life, BEYOND ACADEMIA

It includes an effect, change or benefit to:
- The activity, attitude, awareness, behaviour, capacity, opportunity, performance, policy, practice, process or understanding
- Of an audience, beneficiary, community, constituency, organisation or individuals
- In any geographic location whether locally, regionally, nationally or internationally
- that has taken place during the assessment period (1^st Jan 2008 to 31^st July 2013), and was
- underpinned by excellent research (2*) produced by the submitting institution i.e. Keele (1993 to 2013)

Includes reduction or prevention of harm, risk cost or other negative effects
Panels will provide (not restrictive) guidance on kinds of impact they would anticipate in their UOA, and on appropriate forms of evidence

Example's of 'highly scoring' impact case studies from the Pilot: can be found here http://www.hefce.ac.uk/research/ref/impact/ under further information.

Table 1: Number of case studies required in submissions

Number of Category A staff submitted (FTE)	Required number of case studies
Up to 14.99	2
15 – 24.99	3
25 – 34.99	4
35 – 44.99	5
45 or more	6, plus 1 further case study per additional 10 FTE

Impact assessment in the REF

Based on expert peer review of case studies (80%)
Impact template (20%) - Submissions will include contextual & strategy info about how the unit has supported and enabled impact between 1^st Jan 2008 to 31^st July 2013

REF rules on impact