Our approach to REF2021

We celebrate the successes of our REF submission, and we use the results to inform our future strategy, but we do the research that the university, our staff, our students, and our external stakeholders need us to do as the University for Birmingham.

We are committed to continuously improving our research environment because we recognise the value to the university of enhancing our research quality and our capability and capacity to innovate. Ensuring more of our staff are research active and publishing their findings means more of our students receive new understanding and insights first-hand from staff doing the research and have their curiosity piqued.

Increasing inclusivity of our research environment ensures more of our staff continue to be academically curious and to push forward the frontiers of knowledge in their academic subjects and increase the University’s stocks of intellectual capital.

We are also committed also to doing more of the research needed to fuel the innovation needed to develop new products and services needed to meet the current and future demands of society and the economy, regionally, nationally, and internationally. Increasing the proportion of our staff who are research-engaged means we are better able to assist more organisations at greater scale.