Update from Professor Dame Jessica Corner

We cannot underestimate the contribution of hundreds of colleagues who helped deliver our Research Excellence Framework 2021 results, where we placed 7th in the UK for Research Power* and improved on all measures.

Delivering our submission in March 2021 was a huge team effort and many years of work are represented in the material we submitted.

We asked you to nominate colleagues or teams whose work in getting our submission over the line may otherwise have gone unnoticed.

And I am delighted that many of you are being recognised by your peers and your contribution is being shared with our wider community.

Such contributions are being celebrated on digital screens across our campuses and on social media. Here are some of the things you said:

“Dedicated, resilient and highly supportive…”
“Put in an exceptional amount of effort into producing not one but two top quality submissions…”
“Helping giving voice to our research throughout the university during the pandemic.”

Colleagues supported one another in many ways – beyond producing the research itself or writing a publication, book or manuscript.

Academics who covered a colleague on sabbatical leave or took on admin or teaching duties to give others time and space for REF also made important contributions; as did professional services colleagues who tirelessly shared expertise; postgraduate researchers essential to delivering outputs; technicians, librarians, data experts… and many more.

Please look out for such tributes over the coming weeks, and if you are on social media please follow and share posts from @UoNResearch and tagged #WeAreUoNResearch

*According to analysis by Times Higher Education

Best wishes

Jessica

Professor Dame Jessica Corner
Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research and Knowledge Exchange