Celebrating all research: The Hidden REF 

Simon Hettrick

25 July 2022 - Research on Research Registry - online -  @sjh5000     ORCID: 0000-0002-6809-5195

This is not a damning indictment of the REF

(sorry)

https://slides.com/simonhettrick/20220725-ror-talk

How important is software to research?

https://slides.com/simonhettrick/20220725-ror-talk

Use software

Fundamental to results

69%

92%

n=417

Research

Software

Engineering

Research

Software

Engineer

~10,000 RSEs worldwide

Image courtesy Ian Cosden

31 RSE Groups at UK universities

Greater access to skills

=

Better research

"Oh come on! How big can this Goliath guy be?"

Data: https://bit.ly/3PQ8ic1

11

days of reading

191,000

outputs submitted

38

outputs in software category

Photo by Niilo Isotalo on Unsplash

Is there more to life than publications?

We need to change academic culture

(And there's a good reason why)

Recognising all research outputs and every role that makes research possible

 

www.hidden-ref.org

visibility

significance

  • Training materials and courses
  • Grimpact
  • Citizen science
  • Enabling access to facilities
  • Community building
  • Standards

New categories

The Hidden Role

CC-BY William Murphy 

120 submissions in total

dundee.ac.uk
city.ac.uk
kcl.ac.uk
leeds.ac.uk
st-andrews.ac.uk
sussex.ac.uk
turing.ac.uk
ucl.ac.uk
essex.ac.uk
exeter.ac.uk
ed.ac.uk
imperial.ac.uk
glasgow.ac.uk
ox.ac.uk
sheffield.ac.uk

rhul.ac.uk

aston.ac.uk
bathspa.ac.uk
bgs.ac.uk
bham.ac.uk
bristol.ac.uk
brunel.ac.uk
cardiff.ac.uk
crick.ac.uk
durham.ac.uk
epcc.ed.ac.uk
gre.ac.uk
jic.ac.uk

liverpool.ac.uk
qmul.ac.uk

lboro.ac.uk
ljmu.ac.uk
MBA.ac.uk

ncl.ac.uk
northampton.ac.uk

cam.ac.uk

open.ac.uk
sanger.ac.uk
shu.ac.uk
stfc.ac.uk
strath.ac.uk
tees.ac.uk
uea.ac.uk
york.ac.uk

At least 44 different organisations

Winners

Taken from: https://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/news-and-press-releases/progress-science-depends-a-team

"I'm passionate about the value of crowdsourcing in giving ordinary people an excuse to get up close to collections"

Dr Mia Ridge, British Library

Libcrowds

https://www.libcrowds.com/

"We hope that the Hidden REF award will help us get the recognition we need to [continue our support beyond the current funding cycle]"

Andy Nobes, INASP

AuthorAID

https://www.authoraid.info/en/

18 street children and youths provided the research team with weekly narrative accounts of what it was like to grow up on the streets of Ghana, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zimbabwe

Growing up on the sreets

Photo: Janine Hunter / Growing up on the Streets

The Good

https://slides.com/simonhettrick/20220725-ror-talk

            Simon Hettrick                               James Baker                           Neil Chue Hong                         Gemma Derrick

            Andy Dixon                                Gemma Fletcher                            Jude Fransman                          Patricia Hertrich

             Kirsty Pringle                              Simon Kerridge                           Tony Roche                                    Claire Wyatt

Photo by Anthony DELANOIX on Unsplash

The Bad

  • People were nominated for the wrong reasons

  • It's difficult persuading people that they're in

If we don't recognise the people who are vital to research,

we limit our ability to conduct research

The Festival of Hidden REF

(Actual name TBD)

June 2023

Thank you!

@sjh5000

ORCID: 0000-0002-6809-5195, EPSRC Grant no: EP/S021779/1

Licence

 © Simon Hettrick. These slides are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International : https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Access these slides: https://slides.com/simonhettrick/20220725-ror-talk

Assessment

  • To include everyone and everything and leave nothing behind (visibility)
  • To assess contribution across the diversity, richness, and variety of UK research (significance)
  • All submissions will be celebrated and will be published on the HiddenREF website to raise awareness of the diversity of the UK research base.
  • The best example or examples from each panel (i.e. the submissions located in the top left of the diagram) will be chosen as the winner. The panel also has the discretion to award Highly Commended to submissions as they see fit.