So what do we think will happen with the REF?

[OhBuggerandArse]

Has anyone heard anything more recently than the Friday 13th(!) update? Our institution is keeping up the 'business as usual' narrative, but I can't really see how that will be sustainable.

@YogaFaker did you have the impression that they favoured keeping the outputs deadline in December 2020? We thought it seemed more likely that they will move it to March 2021.

@GCAcademic They proposed 3 options:

1. moving the submission deadline for everything (except the staff census which will not move from the existing date of 31 July 2020) to (probably) March 2021.
2. a phased submission process, with outputs being one of the first to be submitted in (probably) March 2021.
3. moving the submission deadline for everything (except the staff census) 6 months or more into the future and delaying the distribution of funding by a year.

Specifically for impact, they are considering two options:

1. a universal extension of the deadline to 31 December 2020.
2. a deadline of July 2020 with mitigation beyond that deadline granted on a case by case basis up to 31 December 2020.

Plus, potentially other mitigations, including allowing the addition of an explanation of how the impact case has been affected by Covid-19 and later submission of supporting evidence.

One of the things they are particularly seeking views on is whether planned outputs linked to impact cases have been affected / delayed.

It is extremely unlikely that there will be a reduction in the number of required impact cases.

It was a 'meh' for us. At the university's behest, all departments / UoAs have been working on their submissions for a million torturous years and don't want or need extra time (except possibly to squeeze out a few more articles).

Our impact cases are all written. The ones with late potential impact were cut months and months ago and in my own UoA any attempts to have them rejoin the current fight to the death over which ones go in would tip everyone over the edge!

I suspect we will be quite selfish in our institutional and departmental / UoA responses. People were quite annoyed that others might be rewarded for their lack of draconian planning measures...

If you go the ref.ac.uk you’ll find the slides to download.

I assume that no institutions will want to shift the date for QR funding landing in their coffers. It pays for our study leave after all!

Phphion - thanks for that. Selfishly, I hope they don't change the outputs cut-off date - I'd deliberately held a couple of things back so that they would come out next year, to land in the next REF period.

I think there is still a massive issue over being able to commit to any of the proposed options when we still have so little clarity over what the long term plans and effects of the shut-down will be. I can see why they don't want to leave people dangling any longer, but at the same time the idea that you can have a reasonable consultation process when there is still such uncertainty about what life will be like over the next few months seems absolutely bonkers.

Exactly.

But they did confirm, when asked, that it was a reiterative process.

They can’t do nothing. We none of us know what the next months will be like - it’s a matter of Plan A, then Plan B, then Plan C and so on, I suspect

IMHO whether or not we're back to face-to-face teaching in the Autumn is crucial for the viability of a Mar 31st submission deadline for impact and environment. That will have a huge effect on overall staff workloads.

Personally my teaching load is due to ramp back up the day (almost literally) after the original submission deadline. I can just about imagine finalising our submission on top of a full normal teaching load. Doing it while simultaneously switching to remote teaching would be completely impossible.

Goodness. I have just heard through feedback requests from our subject organisation that at least two institutional responses are going to be really gung-ho about demanding a single joint extension to March 31, no extension for impact and no mitigation requests to be permitted. That is a shock - I had thought that as with our own institution there would be a general understanding that additional time would be necessary for impact and that it would be worth putting up with the inconvenience of an extension in order to be as fair as possible to everyone. Feels pretty much as if they think that they're in a good position re. case studies so everyone else can go hang?

Different institutions are indeed in differing positions and are pushing for outcomes that suit them best (while potentially pushing down the competition).

Deadlines of 31 March would need to be announced by 31 July, so decided a few weeks before. I'm doubtful that the situation will be clear enough by then i.e. it won't be known whether or when there will be further lockdowns.