Reflections from the UUK Research and Innovation Conference 2025
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The Universities UK (UUK) Research and Innovation Conference on December 10th provided a valuable opportunity to hear directly from sector leaders and policymakers about the evolving UK research landscape. The overall mood was one of cautious relief, with clarity emerging around the future of REF2029 and broader innovation priorities.
REF Updates: SPRE, Burden, and Timelines
Professor Dame Jessica Corner outlined REF policies following the pause, emphasising the opportunity to ensure the framework meets both sector and government needs. There was a clear commitment to minimising administrative burden while maintaining robustness, along with a recognition of the current pressures impacting the sector and a need to retain familiarity from the last REF. As such, no new indicators will be required for the new Strategy, People and Environment (SPRE) statements, which will be weighted at 20%, rather than the proposed 25% for the piloted People Culture and Environment Statements. This shift towards ‘strategy’ over ‘culture’ will allay much anxiety within the sector about how to measure the unmeasurable, but it also reflects a greater emphasis on institutional strategy and focus which could be taken as a nod to the government’s push for more specialisation. The SPRE will use a template similar to the REF21 Environment Statements, and incorporate the indicators developed and tested through the pilot work.
The disciplinary-level statements for the CKU element (which now sits at a 55% weighting) and the Engagement and Impact element (still at 25%) will be absorbed into the disciplinary-level SPRE statement, with a continued commitment to demonstrating how engagement leads to impact. There will be a balanced weighted assessment of 60/40 between the institutional and UoA-level SPREs, reflecting the reality that ‘strategy’ is largely driven at an institutional level. Panels will finalise the criteria and templates over the coming months, integrating the disciplinary statements for CKU and Engagement & Impact into the SPRE templates.
There will be greater access to the small units exemption process as an opt-out mechanism at disciplinary level, and HESA data will be used to establish staff eligibility, replacing the previously onerous need for staff lists and census dates. This approach reflects a clear signal: REF will support sector priorities without creating additional burden, while maintaining alignment with government expectations. Professor Dame Corner also outlined how Research England will be strengthening the terms and conditions for grant funding that related to research culture, exploring how it can further reward institutional focus and specialization and support collaboration.
The PCE Pilot Report and SPRE Guidance is now available.
Government Commitment to Research Funding
Lord Vallance, self-declared as the only Science Minister to have submitted to previous RAEs, reiterated the government’s commitment to diversity, plurality, and excellence in the UK research base. Specialisation coupled with collaboration was the underlying message, which will be supported by a commitment of £86 billion to Research and Development in the current spending review period—the largest investment to date. £38 billion of that amount has been allocated to UKRI across three priorities:
- Protecting excellence in curiosity-driven, investigator-led research
- Strengthening research impact to meet societal and government needs
- Expanding R&D for start-ups and scale-ups, supported by private co-investment
The Science Minister emphasised reducing bureaucracy for academics and ensuring that the UK’s world-leading research sector is supported by environments which celebrate diversity and infrastructure which enables both fundamental and applied research to find solutions to our most pressing challenges.
In the Closing Plenary, panelists from DSIT, AMRC, UKRI and AHRC outlined priorities for the next phase of the UK research funding system. Holly Yates (DSIT) reinforced the messages of strong political enthusiasm and commitment to research, with a recognition that R&D is currently undervalued domestically. Matt McCallum from UKRI highlighted the need for stronger university–regional community partnerships, reducing the risk implicit in specialised funding streams and moving towards broader partnerships across the sector. UKRI funding will be aligned to the government’s three “buckets”: advancing knowledge, improving lives, and driving growth. There will be a focus on funding fewer things better, including support for the industrial strategy’s eight priority sectors and more tangible articulations of economic, social, and cultural impacts to communicate the benefits of public research investment. Professor Christopher Smith (AHRC) stressed that the UK is entering a period where government goals, UKRI and innovation strategies will be directly linked to budget commitments, which presents an opportunity for the sector to shape the research funding agenda.
Hopefully these announcements will provide a sense of relief and reassurance as the university sector closes over the winter break, and the start of 2026 will bring a renewed sense of focus and clarity as the three-year countdown to the REF29 submission date begins.
Dr Laura Kemp, Impact Consultant, hivve
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