Hidden REF Competition 2024 announce

We are thrilled to announce the Hidden REF competition 2024!

The Hidden REF was launched to raise awareness of the research outputs and roles that are vital to research but overlooked by traditional research evaluation. We want to build a more effective and more equitable system for recognising contributions to research success. Please take part in the competition if you work in research and want to raise awareness of your own work or the work of others.

How can we recognise everything that’s important in research? Our approach is to ask for suggestions of categories of research and research roles that should be included. The last competition added categories for a range of outputs from citizen science to training materials, and a host of research roles from technicians to lived experience contributors. From 27 March, you can nominate a new category or suggest changes to an existing category. We’ll work on the new categories and launch the call for submissions on 27 May.

The Research Excellence Framework (REF) was designed to recognise all research: everything from software to musical compositions. Yet the last REF saw 98% of the 186,000 submitted outputs focussed on publications for which credit is rarely given to coders, data stewards, librarians and others who made the work possible. This focus on publications is caused by a research culture that overlooks the diversity of research outputs and roles. The Hidden REF is challenging unhelpful preconceptions about what constitutes a contribution to research to celebrate non-traditional outputs and the people who devote their professional lives to creating them.

Who Should Apply?

In short, any person, team, or institution seeking to raise awareness of a research output (that is not a journal article, conference proceeding, monograph, or book!). 

Previous winning projects include AuthorAID, a free global network supporting researchers in low and middle income countries; Extreme Imagination, an online exhibition of work by artists with aphantasia and hyperphantasia; and the University of Edinburgh Race Equality Network, which seeks to promote racial justice in higher education. 

It’s important to stress that the Hidden REF is no ordinary competition. The purpose of the exercise is not to identify winners and losers, but to celebrate non-traditional outputs in all their many forms. Everybody associated with a Hidden REF 2024 submission can look forward to their contributions being recognised by a community that understands the importance of their work.

For updates, visit the Hidden REF website or follow the Hidden REF on LinkedIn, BlueSky or X.

Contact us at info@hidden-ref.org.