The first institution to sign up to the Hidden REF 5% manifesto
June 11, 2024
The human costs of the research-assessment culture
October 11, 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.
The problem with recognising all research is that no one knows which research outputs need to be collected to recognise everyone’s contribution. For the 2021 competition, we started with the non-publication-based categories from the 2021 REF and then asked the research community to nominate new categories, of which we added 7 new categories. For the 2024 competition we took suggestions from discussions at the Festival of Hidden REF and again crowdsourced ideas for new categories from the community, as well as changes to existing categories, adding 4 brand new categories!
The competition is now waiting for your submission, follow the link in the timeline to learn about the categories and get your submission in before 13th September.
| Open call for category suggestions | |
| Final categories and submission rules to be announced | |
| 27 May 2024 | Submissions open |
| 13 September 2024 | Deadline for submissions |
| October 2024 | Winners announced! |
| November 2024 | Awards ceremony |
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.
