REF advisory panels members announced

Photo: Queen Margaret University, University of Glasgow, University of the Highlands and Islands

The UK REF Team has announced the membership of the Research Diversity Advisory Panel and the People and Diversity Advisory Panel for the next research assessment exercise in 2029.

The Research Diversity Advisory Panel will ensure the exercise recognises diverse forms of research while the People and Diversity Advisory Panel will support the REF’s appreciation of diversity within researchers’ roles, careers and career stages. As their aims are strongly interlinked, the two panels will work closely together at certain times in the development of their work.

Scottish universities are represented on both panels. Professor Neil Chue Hong, Professor of Research Software Policy and Practice at the University of Edinburgh and Professor Debbie Tolson, Alzheimer Scotland Professor of Dementia at the University of the West of Scotland will both sit on the Research Diversity Advisory Panel. The People Diversity Advisory Panel will benefit from the membership of Professor Doris Ruth Eikhof. Professor Eikhof is Professor of Cultural Economy & Policy at the University of Glasgow.

Rebecca Fairbairn, REF Director, said: “Our new advisory panels will embed knowledge and expertise on the diversity of people, approaches to, and forms of research that are essential to the vitality of the UK’s research base.

“We are delighted to have been able to build panels full of people with the skills and experience needed to shape our criteria-setting and assessment processes from all four nations and from a variety of institutions.

More information, including the full list of members for both panels, is now available on the REF 2029 website.