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Southampton celebrates research ‘in volumes’ with REF submission

Published: 31 March 2021
Biofilm research
Southampton's REF submission features 1,413 staff and 7,300 outputs.

The University of Southampton has submitted its return to the UK national Research Excellence Framework (REF), culminating five years of work, hundreds of meetings and thousands of assessed outputs.

REF assesses the quality of research in UK higher education institutions, especially the impact that research has made outside of academia and the quality of each institutions research environment with the results used to inform the allocation of government research funding.

Professor Mark Spearing, the University’s Vice President (Research and Enterprise), hit the ‘declare and submit’ button on Southampton’s Research England REF Submission web page, joined online by almost 200 colleagues from across the institution.

“There is a lot going on at the moment, but, particularly in this time of COVID-19, it is really important to celebrate this moment,” Professor Spearing enthused. “This marks the culmination of many people’s work across the University over several years. Our REF submission is a really massive team effort and we should remember that research is very much a whole institution activity.”

Professor Spearing outlined a few REF 2021 facts:

  • The University submitted 1,413 staff to the REF - 200 more than in REF 2014;
  • 7,300 Outputs have been assessed, and 3,229 submitted;
  • Each of the 104 Impact Case Studies put forward has been read at least 10 times;
  • The University’s 25 ‘Environment Statements’ total more than 250,000 words;
  • The total submission would run to over 5,000 A4 pages if printed.

Peter Staniczenko, Head of Research Performance in Research and Innovation Research at the University, reflected on the submission process. He said: “It will be another year before we discover just how well we’ve done, but I’m confident it’s going to be a result we can all be proud of.”

Following the last REF in 2014, Southampton reaffirmed its position as one of the UK’s leading research universities, ranking eighth overall in the UK based on research intensity.

Over 96 per cent of the University's research environment was assessed as world-leading and internationally excellent, and nearly 90 per cent of its research assessed as having world-leading and internationally-excellent impact.

To mark the occasion, Ella Frears, Poet-in-Residence for the John Hansard Gallery, has written a poem about the REF called The Submission:

The Submission

began with a folder of images: EMBRYO;
INFLAMED ELBOW; GALLBLADDER DISEASE.

I was on the sofa, blanketed, digesting
the heavy carb of a report.

An official body sent us a meme of a mother cat, carrying
her kitten by the scruff of its neck, before dropping it
into the wastepaper bin.

Cat or the kitten?

With the NOSTALGIA playlist on repeat,
I’d rubbed my forehead shiny, like the statue of a saint.

ANTIMICROBIAL COPPER; AIRCRAFT DESIGN;
WOMEN IN FILM.

It is the morning of the 25th of October and to my cornflakes
I whisper, once more unto the breach, dear friends.

In the fridge, a bag of carrots, far gone in their unnecessary plastic.
I bite the edge, carry them swinging from my teeth to the bin.
I let them fall and thud.

I AM THE MOTHER CAT.
I must not waste another carrot.

WINE CRITICS; THE MUSCLE HEALTH OF ASTRONAUTS;
LONG-DISTANCE LIGHT COMMUNICATION.

My long-distance grandfather, poorly lit, offers
the top of his head only to the camera.
Hello? He says. Hello. I say back. What? he asks.

At 4am I send Peter Staniczenko an empty message,
the subject line reads: HOW LONG DO WE LIVE?
A more functional question, I decide, than WHY?

GENOCIDE, INDETERMINATE PRISON SENTENCE,
EXTREME SEA LEVEL.

I stare into my dirty bathwater and think IMPACT.

Dear Gem, I write, please find attached – my worn-out face,
degraded self-esteem, a monograph on IMPERIAL ROME.

RARE EYE DISEASE, PENILE COMPRESSION CLAMP;
THE BENEFITS OF DANCE.

Dear Gem, I write, today I ate a banana and felt good
about my choices. The suitcases at the airport really are
moving more efficiently than before.

GUILT AND SHAME; SKIN HEALTH.

Spring came through today like a can of diet-summer,
I squinted as I sipped it. Yes.

Peter! Gem! How much we know!

I AM THE MOTHER CAT.

 

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