Institutional performance in funding council assessments of research. Published information The Research Excellence Framework (REF) is the system used by government to assess the quality of research in UK Higher Education Institutions. The results of the REF are published and provide information about the quality of a university's research and are inform research funding. Timing The REF takes place every seven years. The results of the next REF are due to be published in December 2021. Where to find the information University overview of performance in research assessments Results and submissions for all institutions for the last REF are available on the REF website. REF website This article was published on 2024-05-06