“What is REF 2029 really asking us to explain?”

This in-depth full day session helps staff across an institution build a common understanding of the requirements, expectations, and intent behind REF 2029. It brings together researchers, professional services, and leaders to develop shared understanding of what REF 2029 is asking, surface assumptions and tensions, and build a common language around research excellence, engagement, and public value.

It provides structured space for:

• Sense‑making and guided dialogue
• Surfacing assumptions
• Clarifying interpretations of the framework
• Building shared confidence before drafting begins

It is designed for institutions who are keen to:

• ‘Look before they leap’ into full‑scale REF preparations
• Think beyond the guidance, exploring the bigger questions REF 2029 raises about the public purpose of research, engagement, and impact
• Build a shared sense of purpose across their institution and create the conditions for more coherent, values‑aligned REF planning.

"How does our research lead to change, and how do we explain that clearly and credibly?"

This session helps researchers and professional staff step back from drafting and focus on the thinking that underpins strong REF impact case studies. It is designed for people who are already doing meaningful engagement and impact work, but want greater clarity, confidence, and coherence in how they explain it. 

Rather than offering templates or checklists, the session provides structured prompts and practical exercises that help participants:

• Clarify what their research actually contributed, and why it mattered
• Understand how engagement enabled change, rather than simply listing activities
• Strengthen the logic and flow of their impact narrative
• Make proportionate, credible claims that panels can follow and judge with confidence

Participants are invited to bring an impact case study idea or draft in progress and work through how REF 2029 expectations apply in practice.

By the end of the session, they leave with:

• A clearer sense of the kind of impact story they are telling
• Structured notes they can use directly for drafting or revision
• Greater confidence in how REF panels make judgements

The session lasts 3 hours, can be delivered all at once or over 2 sessions. It can also be offered as a train-the-trainer session, making it particularly valuable for teams that support engagement, impact, or REF preparation. Once trained, facilitators can run the session multiple times within their institution, adapting it to different disciplines and stages of readiness.
 

"How do we clearly explain how our research and engagement activity is organised, led, and improved over time?"

This session supports institutions that are ready to move beyond reflection and begin shaping a clear, coherent SPRE narrative for REF 2029. It is designed for teams who want to show how their research environment enables excellent research, meaningful engagement, and public value in context.

The workshop focuses primarily on the institutional SPRE narrative, while also considering how unit-level SPREs can align with and evidence the overarching story.

Delivered as a structured session, it helps institutions to:

• Clarify how research, public engagement, and impact are enabled and connected
• Prioritise what really matters to include in the SPRE narrative
• Explain learning, adaptation, and improvement since REF 2021
• Build a narrative that is proportionate, credible, and grounded in lived experience

By the end of the workshop, teams leave with:

• A shared understanding of the SPRE story they are telling
• A clear outline to develop into a draft submission
• Greater confidence in how REF panels will read and assess their narrative

This session is best delivered over two workshops with some time between them for reflection.