REF 2028: Elements steering group call for volunteers

With further decisions on the REF 2028 expected to be published by the UK funding bodies in December of this year, we know many clients are eager to hear about our planned next steps in supporting REF 2028.

At Symplectic, we are committed to adapting and evolving our solutions to align with the changing landscape of the Research Excellence Framework (REF). Based upon the initial decisionsoutlined in back in June, the REF for 2028 is expected to introduce significant alterations – particularly around the decoupling of researchers and outputs. This shift in emphasis will necessitate a review and retooling of some of the functionality within Symplectic Elements to continue to effectively support the new REF process.

The funding bodies are currently in the process of defining the shape of REF 2028, with further decisions expected to be published in December 2023. Once this additional guidance is made available, we plan to reconvene our REF steering group during the first half of 2024.

In order to provide the best possible support, we are calling for volunteers to collaborate with us in our REF steering groupWe are eager to work with institutions of varying sizes and across a range of disciplines to ensure that Symplectic Elements fulfils and exceeds requirements for all members of the research community. We will continue to maintain a close and collaborative relationship with Research England, ensuring that Symplectic Elements remains in sync with the evolving requirements of REF 2028.

We are committed to providing our users with the tools and support necessary to navigate the changing landscape of research assessment, and we look forward to collaborating with our community to make this happen.

For further inquiries or to express your interest in joining our REF steering group, please sign up using the form here.

Learn more about how we supported the REF 2021 by downloading our REF whitepaper.

REF 2028: Elements steering group call for volunteers

With this partnership, we have the opportunity to position ourselves as
a world leader in the development of the scholarly ecosystem.

Keith Webster, Dean of University Libraries, Carnegie Mellon

I cannot overstate how pleased we have been.
We have to have confidence to work with a partner
for at least 5 years on a project of this size.

Caleb Smith, Senior Strategy Manager for Research Intelligence & Analytics, University of Michigan

“Faculty need only spend perhaps less than an hour a year to prepare and submit their annual reports.”

Associate Dean, Carnegie Mellon University at Qatar

"Leveraging the interoperability between Symplectic Elements and DSpace has increased policy-driven institutional repository deposits by over 350%."

Ellen Phillips, Open Access Specialist, Boston University

Elements elegantly connected our multi-university system providing a
single source of truth throughout OIEx.

Tim Cain, The Ohio Innovation Exchange (OIEx)

The University measures the individual research activity of academic staff. This Measure of Research Activity (MoRA) requires the collection of publication data from faculty. Symplectic Elements supports this beautifully.

Floris van der Leest, Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia

[Elements] will help to bring transparency to the richness of thought showcased within non-traditional publications, providing a more holistic representation of faculties’ scholarly work.

Caleb Smith, University of Michigan

Feedback to date has been extremely positive from all levels across the University, with individual academics and colleagues actively promoting the ease of use of the system.

Rachel Baird, Research Policy Analyst, University of Liverpool