All academic and research staff with a contract of employment of 0.2 FTE or above, whose outputs are eligible for submission to REF2021, are invited to participate in this survey.

If you fall under this staff category, are yet to participate, or want to update a previous submission, please complete this survey.

If you are an Early Career Researcher (ECR) or if your ability to research productively during the assessment period has been constrained due to one or more of the circumstances listed below, you are particularly encouraged to complete this survey.

If you are on a Research Only contract we need to be able to determine your REF eligibility status.

The purpose of collecting this information is for:

• enabling staff, who have not been able to produce a REF-eligible output during the assessment period, to be submitted to REF without the minimum requirement of one output where they have:

  • circumstances that have resulted in an overall period of 46 months or more absence from research during the assessment period, due to equality-related circumstances (see below)
  • circumstances equivalent to 46 months or more absence from research due to equality-related circumstances
  • two or more qualifying periods of family-related leave

• recognising the effect that equality-related circumstances can have on an individual’s ability to research productively, and to adjust expectations in terms of expected workload / production of research outputs.

• establishing whether there are any Units of Assessment where the proportion of declared circumstances is sufficiently high to warrant a request to the higher education funding bodies for a reduced required number of outputs to be submitted.

Applicable circumstances include, but are not limited to:

• qualifying as an ECR (started career as an independent researcher on or after 1 August 2016)

• absence from work due to secondments or career breaks outside the HE sector

• qualifying periods of family-related leave

• junior clinical academics who have not gained a Certificate of Completion of training by 31 July 2020

• disability (including chronic conditions)

• ill heath, injury or mental health conditions

• constraints relating to family leave that fall outside of the standard allowances

• caring responsibilities

• gender reassignment

Further information can be found in paragraph 160 of the Guidance on Submissions (REF 2019/01).

Completing and returning the individual circumstances part of the form is voluntary. Individuals who choose not to return it will not be put under any pressure to declare information if they do not wish to do so.

This form is the only means by which the University will be gathering personal circumstances information; we will not be consulting HR records, contract start dates, etc. For more information please consult the University's REF code of Practice.

The University recognises that staff circumstances may change between completion of the declaration form and the census date (31 July 2020). If this is the case, you can resubmit your declaration by filling in a new survey.

Complete this survey by 31 May 2020. This gives us time to process all information for the next meeting of the Panels.

If you require any information contact: REF2021@bath.ac.uk.