Open Research & Publishing offers the Library’s perspective on the recently announced changes to REF2029 Outputs section and the new Contribution to Knowledge and Understanding (CKU).
REF2029 brings several important updates to how research will be assessed across UK universities. Perhaps the most noticeable is the renaming of the “Outputs” section to Contribution to Knowledge and Understanding (CKU). This change reflects a broader, more inclusive approach to recognising the value and impact of research.
One of the biggest shifts is the move away from focusing solely on individual researchers to placing greater emphasis on the institutional environment that supports and enables research. This means institutions will still submit all eligible staff with significant research responsibilities, but outputs will no longer be tied to specific individuals. Instead, outputs can be submitted to more than one Unit of Assessment (UoA) where appropriate, and there is no longer a set minimum or maximum number of outputs per researcher. This change offers more flexibility to represent collaborative and interdisciplinary work fairly.
REF2029 also introduces multi-weighting, allowing institutions to assign different weightings to outputs. This is especially helpful for fields like practice-based research, where the scope and scale of outputs can vary widely.
Another key update is the requirement to show a substantive link between each output and the submitting institution, ensuring that credit reflects the environment in which the research was supported, rather than simply the researcher’s current employer.
To support these changes, Open Research & Publishing is updating Library workflows and developing a REF2029-specific module within the Discovery Research Portal. This will help with accurate data gathering, output recording, and compliance with open research policies.
While full guidance is still to be released, these early changes signal a meaningful shift towards a more inclusive and collaborative research culture.
If you need support understanding these changes or preparing your submissions, please contact us at discovery@dundee.ac.uk.