Summary
1. As a key measure to support equality and diversity in REF 2021, the Funding Bodies
agreed that institutions would be entitled to submit cases for staff circumstances so that they could be assessed, and feedback provided, in advance of the REF submission deadline. Although the ‘clock stopped’ for other aspects of REF at the end of March this year, the Equalityand Diversity Advisory Panel (EDAP) went ahead with their assessments of circumstances requests broadly in line with the original timetable, although ensuring that any requests for further information f rom HEIs were sent when the exercise had restarted, unless the HEI opted to receive these at an earlier date.
2. EDAP has now assessed all of the REF 6a and 6b requests that were submitted in early
March, and feedback has been provided to institutions in parallel with this report being published. The assessment was carried out entirely virtually, and worked far better than we initially anticipated.
3. Please direct all enquiries to info@ref.ac.uk