UKRN welcomes the renewed focus on strategy and collaboration in the policies and guidance released last week by the REF team. For example, institutions will be able to use their Strategy, People and Research Environment statements to highlight collaboration, such as via UKRN, to promote responsible research. They will also be able to include in their Engagement and Impact statements narratives about research engagement aimed at enhancing quality throughout the research lifecycle by strengthening the rigour and transparency across disciplines. At UKRN, our vision is for researchers, research-enablers, academic institutions, and other sectoral organisations from all disciplines to work together to better conduct and promote rigorous, reproducible, and transparent research. Enabling collaboration is at the heart of our mission.
To do this, UKRN works at three levels: with individuals and local research communities, with institutions through their senior leaders, and with the wider research sector. UKRN engages in:
- activities such as training and peer support, designed to develop skills and leadership among individual researchers and research communities;
- initiatives enacting a strategic commitment to responsible research, embedded in an institution’s policy and practice;
- collaborations to build system-wide and sector capacity that influence UK research strategy and policy. Most recently, we have shared with each of our institutional members a bespoke document describing the specific ways in which their people have collaborated via UKRN to pursue these goals. We will do this again at least once before the REF submission date, and we hope that evidence will support UKRN institutions in their REF activities.
We understand that more detailed guidance and templates will be forthcoming from the REF team during 2026, including on indicators – an area of work to which UKRN members have actively contributed and on which we plan shortly to publish major new reports.
As the REF announcement notes, we all have a shared commitment to growing open, collaborative and resilient research environments that support people to produce excellent research. By working together, the UKRN community is making that commitment real and meaningful.