{"id":7706,"date":"2026-10-06T16:19:46","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T16:19:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/early-career-researcher-noticeboard\/?p=7706"},"modified":"2026-10-06T16:19:46","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T16:19:46","slug":"invitation-to-participate-in-ref-2029-equality-impact-assessment-focus-group-22-october-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/early-career-researcher-noticeboard\/2026\/10\/06\/invitation-to-participate-in-ref-2029-equality-impact-assessment-focus-group-22-october-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Invitation to Participate in REF 2029 Equality Impact Assessment Focus Group &#8211; 22 October 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Background<\/strong><br \/>\nThe <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imperial.ac.uk\/research-and-innovation\/about-imperial-research\/ref\/\">Research Excellence Framework<\/a> (REF) is a UK-wide exercise assessing research quality across higher education institutions. The next REF will take place in 2029, and Imperial is committed to ensuring our processes for preparing our submission are fair, transparent and inclusive.<\/p>\n<p>This is a crucial activity for Imperial as the outcome of REF directly influences the funding we receive from Research England. Since 2022, Imperial has received \u00a350-60m per year because of our excellent performance in REF 2021.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Why Your Input Matters<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The University\u2019s REF 2029 Equality Impact Assessments (EIAs) aim to demonstrate and monitor Imperial\u2019s commitment to supporting equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) in a robust and transparent manner. Your contributions will inform our interim EIA at this important stage in the REF cycle.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Focus Group<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>We are seeking up to 15 individuals from across Imperial who collectively represent the diversity of our community to attend a one-hour focus group.<\/p>\n<p>During the session you will have the opportunity to:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Contribute to making sure REF processes are as inclusive and equitable as possible.<\/li>\n<li>Identify potential positive and negative equality impacts of REF processes.<\/li>\n<li>Share insights that will inform our interim EIA.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The session will be co-facilitated by the central REF team and the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Centre (EDIC).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Details<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Date:<\/strong> Thursday 22<sup>nd<\/sup> October 2026 13:30-14:30<\/li>\n<li><strong>Format:<\/strong> 60 minute facilitated online session.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Who should attend:<\/strong> Imperial staff members who can provide insight into equality, diversity and inclusion considerations. We are particularly interested in hearing from Research staff at the grades: <strong>Research Associate, Research Fellow <\/strong>and <strong>Advanced Research Fellow<\/strong>. No prior knowledge of REF is required.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>How to Attend<\/strong><br \/>\nPlease complete our <a href=\"https:\/\/forms.cloud.microsoft\/e\/c9ZcLxg7MG\">registration form<\/a> and you will be sent a Teams meeting invite. We aim to bring together a group that reflects a broad range of perspectives and experiences across Imperial.<\/p>\n<p>If you have any questions, please contact the central REF team at <a href=\"mailto:ref.team@imperial.ac.uk\">ref.team@imperial.ac.uk<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Your contribution will help shape a fair and transparent process for REF 2029 and ensure Imperial continues to lead in research excellence while upholding our strong commitment to EDI.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Background The Research Excellence Framework (REF) is a UK-wide exercise assessing research quality across higher education institutions. The next REF will take place in 2029, and Imperial is committed to ensuring our processes for preparing our submission are fair, transparent and inclusive. This is a crucial activity for Imperial as the outcome of REF directly [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1878,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[16586],"tags":[320931],"class_list":["post-7706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-internships-volunteering-work-experience-opportunities","tag-research-staff"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/early-career-researcher-noticeboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/early-career-researcher-noticeboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/early-career-researcher-noticeboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/early-career-researcher-noticeboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1878"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/early-career-researcher-noticeboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7706"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/early-career-researcher-noticeboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7706\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7707,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/early-career-researcher-noticeboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7706\/revisions\/7707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/early-career-researcher-noticeboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/early-career-researcher-noticeboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/early-career-researcher-noticeboard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}