Hidden REF

This week we’re highlighting another entrant from Glasgow: this time Ben Parkinson from @glasgowcaledonian.bsky.social. Ben is Chair of the School of Health & Life Sciences Research Ethics Committee. His entry highlights the crucial & often unseen work that ethics committees do to enable research.

Where will you put your trophy if you win? Given that my day-to-day work revolves around committee meetings & supporting researchers, trophy-winning isn't exactly a regular occurrence. Were I lucky enough to win the trophy would sit proudly in my office & be a reminder that research ethics matters.

This week we’re highlighting another entrant from Glasgow: this time Ben Parkinson from @glasgowcaledonian.bsky.social. Ben is Chair of the School of Health & Life Sciences Research Ethics Committee. His entry highlights the crucial & often unseen work that ethics committees do to enable research.

Why did you enter the Competition? Because Research Ethics Committees are often seen as an administrative ‘tick-box’ exercise rather than an integral part of research excellence. A great deal of work goes on behind the scenes to ensure research is conducted ethically, responsibly & with integrity.

Our next set of entrants might have the coolest professional headshots we’ve seen yet - not that it’s a competition. (Well, the Competition IS a competition, but you know what we mean…)

What is the most exciting part of your job? John: The most exciting (and sometimes terrifying) part of the job is working large volume glassware on the glassblowing lathe. Ayako: Giving form to abstract inspiration and transforming it into a tangible object.

Our next set of entrants might have the coolest professional headshots we’ve seen yet - not that it’s a competition. (Well, the Competition IS a competition, but you know what we mean…)

John Liddell, Senior Scientific Glassblower, and Ayako Tani, Glassblower, both work in the @uofgchem.bsky.social. Their colleagues nominated them to recognise the essential work they perform - you can’t have a chemistry lab without glassware.

The next entrant we want to highlight is Glyn Nelson from Newcastle University. Glyn is a Specialist Experimental Scientific Officer, but if you ran into him at the pub he’d more likely say that he looks after microscopes and teaches people how to use them.

What do you hope people take away from your entry? Better awareness of the wider work performed ‘under the bonnet’ by technical staff.

The next entrant we want to highlight is Glyn Nelson from Newcastle University. Glyn is a Specialist Experimental Scientific Officer, but if you ran into him at the pub he’d more likely say that he looks after microscopes and teaches people how to use them.

What is the most exciting part of your job? Users bringing unusual and interesting samples and figuring out how best to image them. These range from complex microfluidics, weird biofilms on odd substrates, archaeological soil samples and even Vindolanda tablets!

The Hidden REF Competition team is hard at work reviewing the 222(!) submissions we received for this year’s competition. We’re looking forward to celebrating all of the entrants at this year’s Awards Ceremony on Friday 27 November. Want to join us for the celebration? You can register now!

How do you actually describe your job to people at a dinner party? I teach a variety of topics and sometimes research how students react to them. Why did you enter the Competition? To help make the education pathway more visible and highlight the importance of roles such as mine in academia.

The Hidden REF Competition team is hard at work reviewing the 222(!) submissions we received for this year’s competition. We’re looking forward to celebrating all of the entrants at this year’s Awards Ceremony on Friday 27 November. Want to join us for the celebration? You can register now!

We've been checking in with winners from previous Hidden REF Competitions and it's been such a joy to hear about the role the competition has played in their careers.

@profemilysena.bsky.social from the University of Edinburgh explained how she has used her 2021 win: “Winning the Hidden REF gave me valuable evidence for the impact of my work. It’s a win in a national competition which I’ve since used to support funding applications and even a promotion.”

In preparation for this year's Hidden REF Competition, we've been reaching out to past competition winners to chat about their experience. We've heard back from so many - and honestly, we're blushing 😊.

Holly Blake explained how winning an award in the 2024 competition provided additional momentum for her project: 'This award helped amplify the reach of the work, supporting further research, collaborations and a growing evidence base, including our recent 5‑year follow‑up study.'

Here at the Hidden REF it might seem like we're always talking about not-traditionally submitted outputs (NTOs). But what is an NTO and why do we care so much about how they're assessed? Our Hidden REF community manager Lyndsey Ballantyne explains. www.youtube.com/watch?v=3X19...

There may be more than 2 months to go until the competition closes, but why not get started early? Take a look at the submission categories and see where your research output best fits.

Behind almost every research study there's a collections specialist, a data manager, a technician or a bit of code that never makes the paper and never gets credited. The Hidden REF 2026 is open, and it recognises exactly those outputs and roles, the ones traditional assessment leaves out.

New this year: panels will use their interpretation of the REF guidelines on originality, significance and rigour to assess outputs, meaning a competition submission is also a chance to practice writing NTO submissions that could be submitted for the REF.