[Physstaff] Research Audit - Timings and requirements

[Erling Riis]

Dear All,

The University is conducting an Institutional Research Audit over the next few months in preparation for the next REF.

The two key aims for this year's audit are:
*        To develop a rigorous internal review process across all Departments and Schools - Last year's audit process, and REF Team debrief meetings with Strathclyde REF Panel members, identified that individual UoAs / Schools / Departments are best placed to undertake the vast majority of the research output review and rating process in the run-up to the next exercise, with external reviewers used only as part of a star rating calibration exercise. The REF Team will be issuing guidance on an internal review and rating process based on information gathered on REF Panels. To help the self-evaluation / selection of outputs, the REF Team will be offering guidance and workshops to Academics to improve their understanding of the characteristics of 3 and 4* research outputs. The Team will also have workshops for the Output Reviewers (to be identified within your department) to provide further insight on the REF Panel process.
*        To improve our 'impacts in progress' - Using the case studies submitted to REF2014 as a guide, it is very likely that the research outputs that will lead to impact during the assessment phase have already been published. Coupling this with the likelihood of tougher competition for a future REF, as universities are more aware of and aligned to the impact agenda, there is a need for a robust evaluation of our developing and potential impact case studies. The number of 'impacts in progress' required for each Department  / School will be determined by the Academic staff FTE, in  a similar fashion to the REF2014 impact case study criteria. Each case study will require the author to provide a title, summary, impact type underpinning research, impact development process, future impacts and any evidence of impact to date. With these impacts in progress it is anticipated that Department / School and  / or Faculty, with support from RKES, will be able to proactively assist the development of the potential impact case study. A frequent review of these impacts going forward will also assist in the collection of evidence.

The REF Team are planning to hold two briefing sessions (the same content repeated twice to provide flexibility for attendance) for Academic staff in October / November to offer more detailed guidance on the individual requirements for the audit. The sessions will be held on  Wednesday 28th October - Graham Hills Room 513 from 2.30pm - 4pm and on Thursday 5th November - Graham Hills Room 617 from 2.30pm - 4.30pm.
Please make necessary arrangements to attend one of these sessions.

Cheers
Erling


===============================================================
Professor Erling Riis
Head of Department
Department of Physics,               tel: 0141-5483490
Strathclyde University,
John Anderson Building,             e-mail: e.riis at strath.ac.uk<mailto:e.riis at strath.ac.uk>
Glasgow, G4 0NG
UK

[cid:part3.05040902.02010809 at strath.ac.uk]

The Department is a partner in SUPA, the Scottish Universities Physics Alliance
The University of Strathclyde is a charitable body, registered in Scotland, number SC015263


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://phys.strath.ac.uk/pipermail/physstaff/attachments/20151015/ad6b4dc0/attachment.html 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image002.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 6033 bytes
Desc: image002.jpg
Url : http://phys.strath.ac.uk/pipermail/physstaff/attachments/20151015/ad6b4dc0/attachment.jpg