A festival for everyone involved in research

The Festival of Hidden REF

The Festival of Hidden REF will take place on 7-8 October 2025. It brings together people who work with non-traditional outputs and in Hidden Roles with policymakers, publishers and others involved in research assessment. The Festival’s focus is on sharing knowledge about NTOs and Hidden Roles, collecting new ideas and the latest developments from attendees and, most importantly, celebrating everyone who contributes to research. 

The first Festival took place in 2023. Our whitepaper summarises the discussions that took place at the Festival. It summarises many of the campaigning themes for the Hidden REF and our community, defines non-traditional outputs, and describes the evolution of the Hidden REF competition. A video of the Festival is available below, you can also hear about the experiences of some of the guests and committee members in a special edition of the Code for Thought podcast, which was recorded at the Festival. You can also take a look through the Festival photos and review the slides from the event, which are linked in the programme on the Hidden REF Festival 2023 page.