A festival for everyone involved in research

The Festival of Hidden REF

The Festival of Hidden REF took place on 7 and 8 October 2025 at Thinktank, Birmingham Science Museum. The Festival 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 diverse outputs and Hidden Roles, collecting new ideas and the latest developments from attendees and, most importantly, celebrating everyone who contributes to research.

You can see photos from the Festival here! 

Day 1 of the Hidden REF Festival will see participants directly shape the Hidden REF not traditionally submitted output (NTO) workshops ahead of their official launch in late-2025. Community co-creation is vital to the success of these workshops. To ensure fit with current community need, the sessions on this day will focus on piloting and gathering feedback on methods for evaluating diverse research outputs, as well as providing opportunities for attendees to act as ambassadors and promote NTO Workshops within their own institutions.

Day 2 of the Hidden REF Festival will focus on empowering change, building the community, and centering hidden roles in research. Practitioners, experts, and policy makers will share their perspectives on and mechanisms for rewarding and recognising diverse research outputs and careers. And alongside lightning talks, roundtables, and plenary talks, attendees will have the opportunity to help define what success should look like for the Hidden REF campaign in and beyond this REF cycle. 

Sponsors

A huge thank you to our sponsors for supporting the Hidden REF and helping us make the Festival more accessible and impactful.

Research Professional News joined the event as our official media partner.

Festival Programme

Day 1: 7th October

  • 09:00-10:35: REGISTRATION & INTRODUCTIONS
    • 09:00-10:00: Arrival refreshments in Futures Gallery
    • 10:10-10:35: Welcome and Introduction to Day 1
  • 10:35-10:50: Liverpool DOTs by Natalie Wallis
  • 10:50-11:10: Coffee Break
  • 11:10-11:20: Let’s introduce something new: Heuristics
  • 11:20-12:45: Assessment Workshop 1
    • From Popcorn to Peer Review: How We Judge What’s 4*
  • 12:45-13:45: Networking Lunch
  • 13:45-14:35: Assessment Workshop 2
    • 4* or Fuggedaboutit: Not-traditionally Submitted Outputs under the Spotlight
  • 14:35-15:05: Coffee Break
  • 15:05-15:45: Assessment Workshop 3
    • 4* or Fuggedaboutit: Not-traditionally Submitted Outputs under the Spotlight
  • 15:45-16:15: Coffee Break & Group Photo
  • 16:15-17:00: Outcomes & Wrap-up
  • 19:00: DINNER (optional)

Day 2: 8th October

  • 09:00-10:30: SESSION 1 – REGISTRATION & INTRODUCTIONS
    • 09:00-10:00: Arrival refreshments in Futures Gallery
    • 10:10-10:30: Welcome & Introduction to Day 2
  • 10:30-13:00: SESSION 2 – PRESENTATIONS & REFLECTIONS
    • 10:30-11:50: Lightning Talks
      • Arianna Ciula (King’s College London) – What makes good honey? A checklist for digital outputs on the web inspired by Research Software Engineering ethos and practices
      • Raysa Rocha (University of Essex) – Small Connections, Big Difference: Why Weak Ties Matter for Neuroinclusion
      • Radka Newton (Lancaster University) – Swimming Upstream: Making SoTL Count in Research-Driven Institutions
      • Aaqib Ayub (University of Hertfordshire) – The Hidden Architects: Why Research Technicians Belong at the Design Table
      • Emma Ganley (protocols.io) – Research Methods are a Foundational (but oft Unappreciated) Research Output
      • Jenny Evans (University of Westminster) – Working in co-design with practice research communities to describe diverse forms of knowledge and contributorship
      • Inci Toral, Sarah Montano, and Sarah Percy (University of Birmingham) – Academic Wife-work: invisible labour and its emotional impacts
      • Gareth Bish (Coherent Digital) – Using grey literature to uncover real-world impact
      • Caroline Ang (University of Bath) – The good, the bad and the ugly
      • Jyoti Satnam Singh Bhogal (Research Software Engineering Asia Association) – Community as Infrastructure: Uncovering the Hidden Impact of Research Software in Research Excellence
      • Holly Ranger (University of Sheffield) – Beyond the research article: understanding Sheffield’s non-traditional research
      • Elisa Collado Fregoso (Imperial College London) – The role of PRISMs on how research is produced
      • Tim Fellows (Octopus) – Octopus as a platform for publishing and assessing non-traditional research outputs
      • Kirk Woolford (Norwich University of the Arts) – Beyond Text: alternative output types
      • Catherine Maffioletti (University of Greenwich) – Towards New Ways of Knowing: Practice, Knowledge Exchange and Beyond
      • Stuart King (Loughborough University) – EON in Research Assessment
    • 11:50-13:00: Building an expert community for NTOs
      • In this session, we will crowd source the collection of expertise on all REF NTO categories
  • 13:00-14:00: NETWORKING LUNCH
  • 14:00-15:00: SESSION 3 – CELEBRATING SUCCESS
    • 14:00-15:00: Stories from Hidden REF Competition Winners
      • Lorraine van Blerk (University of Dundee)
      • Holly Blake (University of Nottingham)
      • Laura Henderson (Royal Brompton Hospital)
  • 15:00-15:30: Coffee Break & Group Photo
  • 15:30-17:15: SESSION 4 – EFFECTING CHANGE
    • 15:30-17:00: Rewarding research excellence, recognising research careers: perspectives on evaluating diverse outputs
      • Kalpana Shankar (University College Dublin)
      • Tim Newton (King’s College London)
      • Charlotte Brady (University of Edinburgh)
      • Samantha Ahern (University College London)
    • 17:00-17:15: Future Plans