Get ready for the next Research Review Exercise (RRE)

22 Sep 2025

The next annual mandatory exercise for all REF-eligible staff will be opening in September 2025.

The University’s Research Review Exercise (RRE) – the annual mandatory peer review of research outputs for all REF-eligible staff – will be opening in September 2025.

What is the RRE?

The Research Review Exercise (RRE) is an annual mandatory exercise for all REF-eligible staff. It consists of the peer review of research outputs published since 1^st January 2021.

Who is eligible?

The RRE includes all staff on the University payroll as of 31^st July 2025 who are:

On academic ‘teaching and research’ contracts.

On ‘research only’ contracts and meet the REF 2021 definition of an ‘independent researcher’ (i.e. an individual who undertakes self-directed research, rather than carrying out another individual's research programme).

The following staff are therefore not included in RRE:

Staff with explicit teaching-focused or teaching and scholarship contracts.
Research assistants and research associates who are not ‘independent researchers’.

You will be contacted directly by Professor Colette Fagan (Vice President for Research) if you are required to participate in RRE.

What do I need to do now?

In advance of RRE opening, you should:

Check your Pure profile is up to date. This will help avoid any delays in putting your work forward for review. You can find further guidance on adding content to Pure.
Continue to make sure your outputs meet Open Access (OA) requirements. The easiest way to ensure you meet OA requirements is to use the Open Access Gateway.
Add any affiliations to University Research Platforms, institutes, and/ or other key internal groups to your profile.
Make sure you have an ORCID and that this is linked to your Pure profile.

What do I need to do for the RRE?

If you are contacted directly to participate, you will be asked to put forward for review all of your eligible outputs that you think are likely to score 4* using REF 2021 criteria. This year’s review will concentrate exclusively on 4* outputs, rather than 3* and 4* outputs as in previous exercises.

There is no limit to the number of outputs you can put forward for review. So please put forward all outputs you believe may be 4*. You do not need to put forward outputs already submitted to a previous RRE.

The email from Professor Fagan will include step-by-step guidance on how to propose your outputs in Pure.

I am a new member of staff, what do I do?

Due to new rules announced by Research England in June 2025, outputs are not ‘portable’ for REF 2029 (with some important exceptions). Therefore, broadly, only outputs produced at The University of Manchester are eligible. As such, colleagues who joined the University after 31^st July 2025 will not be contacted to take part in this RRE but will be able to participate in future exercises.

I don’t have any eligible 4* outputs/ I submitted all my 4* outputs to a previous RRE

It is appreciated that not all staff will have eligible 4* outputs at this stage in the REF cycle, or that they may not have any new 4* outputs since a previous RRE. The direct email will include instructions on what to do in these cases, while still participating in RRE. Please do not propose outputs you think fall below the 4* quality threshold.

I haven’t been contacted but think I should be, what should I do?

If you have not been contacted by the end of September but think you should have been, please contact your Faculty REF manager in the first instance to check this.