Message from Maggie Gale, Vice-Dean for Research
23 Feb 2026
Maggie updates on the Faculty’s preparations for REF 2029, research training and development projects and our research strategic challenges for Manchester 2035.
Dear colleagues,
As we begin to move into spring, I note that there are fewer than five semesters between now and our REF 2029 submission. Whilst we still don’t have the full framework guidelines, we do have some important pointers which will help us to think about our units of assessment (UoA) Strategy, People and Research Environment (SPRE) statements, in the context of these now being weighted at 20%. With 60% of the grading coming from the wider University of Manchester SPRE statement, this is very much a new way of presenting our research environment.
Whilst some UoA leads have queried how we will do this, the recent REF 2029 ‘Kick-off’ event was deeply reassuring to everyone about how well the University has structured its research support services to manage the REF submission overall: we have great teams managing this process at Faculty and School level too.
Our impact case study review is well under way in the Faculty, with some 125 cases being reviewed for the roughly 75 that we will need (possibly more than the other two Faculties combined). We have a great team working on this with our impact case study authors, and the process is being led at Faculty level by Professor Hannah Barker, who came into post as Associate Vice-Dean Research: Impact in August 2025.
Dare I say it, with the latest round of the Research Review Exercise (RRE) under way, we are in a very strong position in terms of gathering data on progress and in terms of being in a stronger position to begin shaping our REF 2029 submissions.
Whilst this moment in a REF cycle also draws our attention and focus, there are lots of developmental projects happening in the research space across the Faculty. We welcomed our first large-scale cohort of post-doctoral researchers (over 30 in number), from Simon, Hallsworth, AI investment and Bicentenary Fellowship funds in Autumn 2025. They really are an extraordinary group of early career researcher (ECR) colleagues, all working on exciting projects connected to our Faculty research themes.
Pleasingly, many of these are working across multiple departments and even Schools, and have all become, as have all our previous post-doctoral researchers, members of our Humanities Fellowship Academy overseen by Professor James Evans and Lorna Bryant. There have already been a number of development workshops designed with their needs in mind, and there are more scheduled for the 2025-2026 academic session, including a masterclass on interdisciplinary research on 5 March followed by a forum designed to help shape the future programme of the Academy.
We have prioritised development work and training this year, to help deliver on our enhancement of interdisciplinary research. This includes training on large grant applications and team-based research, and preparing teams for the new UKRI ‘mission’-focused awards, including a specific session on leading UK government initiatives on 16 April.
We also held our first event for our highly cited researchers (HCRs) in early February. It was extremely useful to be able to hear their suggestions for improvements in support, but also, for how to support more up-and-coming highly cited researchers.
This semester sees the new programme on advanced research mentoring for cohort 2, designed for us and delivered by social enterprise 64 Million Artists, who will be running a joint session with the first cohort in March. This has proved a popular programme with lots of positive feedback from participants. We also launched our Humanities Strategic Investment Fund scheme for targeted enhanced academic leave this semester, and we look forward to receiving excellent applications and being able to make awards in the next few months.
Our work on developing our research strategic challenges for Manchester 2035 is an example of our shift to a more collective research culture mindset. Across the funding landscape we are moving to a more team-based, mission-driven research culture and this is not possible without the willingness to adapt, and the time and effort of our PS teams in helping us shift focus. This will include the valuable contribution our postgraduate researchers (PGRs) make to our research environment, and I would like to take this opportunity to welcome Monique James as our interim PGR Manager as we continue to push on with our work across the Doctoral Academy.
This collective mindset is also reflected in the work of all our academic colleagues across the Faculty, who are spending time assessing colleagues’ work for RRE, upscaling their research mentoring skills and practices, and taking the time and effort to participate in the recruitment of the next cohort of post-doctoral researchers.
These colleagues are spending substantial amounts of time reviewing and assessing applications from over 550 hopefuls and attending interview panels. All your work does not go unnoticed, and there is no doubt that all the efforts we are investing now will bring reward in terms of our ability to increase our grant capture over the next few years, and in terms of our ability to improve our national standing in a number of our UoA in REF 2029.
So, for all your efforts so far, the Research Support team say many, many thanks.
Maggie B. Gale
Vice-Dean Research: Humanities