Impact Guidance

The file uploader portal for Impact Case Studies is now available. Please note that you will need to ensure that the VPN access has been enabled (please see here for further information about the VPN http://www.exeter.ac.uk/it/howdoi/vpn/).  Please kindly upload the ICS for your UoA before close of play on the 18^th December according to the instructions below. This should be straightforward but please don’t hesitate to get in touch should you need assistance.  To explain the rationale; we are using the file uploader portal for all elements of the REF collection for the December deadline to ensure that we can manage version control and to run a test upload to the REF system.  Thanks for your understanding.      

How to upload Impact Case Studies

1. Connect to VPN
2. Click on the link:  http://vmrespub:449/ImpactElectronic.asp
3. You will see the screen as per the image below. Please select the ICS word file from your computer using the ‘browse’ button.

Please check and change the file name if necessary before uploading. Please could you follow the file naming convention as below, example given. IIB colleagues are aware of the naming convention and have started to rename files in this way:

Author, initial_UoA_ Identifying word from the title_ and either ‘Final’, ‘SNC’ (selection not confirmed), ‘Draft’

Examples

Wright,D_UoA2_Preeclampsia_Final

Hattersely,A;DeFranco,E;Ellard,S_UoA1_NeonatalDiabetes_SNC

We would expect that the vast majority of case studies would be labelled ‘Final’. There are a few UoA’s submitting more ICS than required for final decision in February, in which case those case studies would have the suffix ‘SNC’.  A very small number of case studies are being submitted in draft, either on the 18^th December or 11^th Jan, with prior agreement from the ADR or review panel. This is due to pending evidence or very specific circumstances; in which case, they would be labelled ‘DRAFT’

4. Complete the fields in the form as per the instructions below. This will help us to track the status of each ICS

5. The uploader should only be used to upload the Impact Case Studies. For contextual data, evidence or mitigating statements, please see below. Although the functionality exists, please do not upload a PDF version of your impact case study.

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The IIB and Research teams are following a checking process the first week of January, to double check templates, mandatory criteria and to read through the full portfolio per UoA etc.  If the outcome of those checks necessitates any further input from DOIs or authors, we will contact you the week commencing 11^th January, in advance of the February final REF2021 submission meetings deadline for amendments (18th Jan deadline - HUMS/ SISS / EMPS, 25th - CLES / CMH / UEBS)

Other Impact Elements

1. Contextual data. This is required for every ICS and is intended to capture all of the funding information that led to impact. It’s used post-assessment by the Funding and Research Councils to evaluate how funding has been spent, and does not count towards the ICS/REF assessment. Please see the attached template. Please use the Impact Contextual Data Template to collect this information. The entries will be copied into an Excel dataset, compatible with the REF submission system, so please ensure entries are clearly set out. Please get in touch with Exeter-REF-2021@exeter.ac.uk if there are any problems providing the details. There is a contextual data folder in each author’s folder in SharePoint for you to store the document attached for each case study. Many authors will have already filled this out as it was previously attached to an old ICS template. If you can, please save to the SharePoint folder by the 18^th December.  We will follow up which ICS are missing Contextual Data as part of the January checking process; with help from IIB colleagues we can continue to complete these until the 5^th February.

2. Mitigating Statements. For the few ICS requiring mitigating statements, we will need to have copies of the statements by the 18^th Jan for SSIS, EMPS, HUMS and 25^th for UEBS, CMH and CLES. DOIs will be notified for whom that applies regarding templates and guidance etc. If statements have already been written we can assist with putting in the required format etc. Please upload any available mitigating statements to the author’s folders in SharePoint ‘October Draft and Review’ folders. 

3. Evidence. IIB colleagues are working through evidence checks and we will review status the first week in Jan. As the vast majority of case studies submitted should be the final version, we would expect that any evidence still pending receipt would apply to case studies with an extension agreed.  In February and March IIB colleagues will be working on putting the evidence in the required format for submission to REF.  Please continue to upload evidence ASAP into the relevant case study SharePoint folder.

4. Confidential ICS. In March / April we will be working on redacting the ICS labelled confidential, so that redacted summaries can be published by REF (if appropriate).

Please get in touch with L.A.Reichwald@exeter.ac.uk should you have any queries on the above.