The purpose of the RRE is to provide schools with planning information based on aggregated output assessment profiles to support preparation of the University’s REF2029 output return.

The RRE is an annual exercise for all REF-eligible staff and consists of the peer review of outputs, providing grades for the quality of key individual research outputs published since 1st January 2021.

Colleagues are encouraged to keep their Pure profiles up to date throughout the year, but the RRE provides a focus for data collection.

The Pure RRE portal will open on 13 January 2025 and will close on 17 February 2025. During this period, eligible colleagues will propose up to two outputs that they judge to be of 4*/3* standard and will be asked to provide a brief statement describing how their work meets the grade definition.

Any outputs that were not reviewed in the 2024 exercise do not need to be requested again and will be automatically included in the exercise.

The RRE includes all FHums staff on the University payroll as of 1 December 2024 who are classed as independent researchers, using the REF2021 definition*. It is mandatory for all eligible staff to respond to the RRE.

Eligible colleagues will be contacted directly via an email from the Vice-President for Research asking them to participate in the exercise.

*Includes all permanent and fixed-term academic staff with a contract of employment of 0.2 FTE or greater on the University payroll whose primary employment function is to undertake either ‘research only’ or ‘teaching and research’. Research assistants/associates and staff with explicit teaching-focussed or teaching and scholarship contracts are not included.