Research Assessment Exercise

What is the RAE?

The Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) is a periodic exercise conducted nationally to assess the quality of UK research and to inform the selective distribution of public funds for research by the four UK higher education funding bodies.

Research Assessment Exercises have been held in the UK in 1986, 1989, 1992, 1996, 2001 and 2008.

The 2008 RAE used the same main principles of peer assessment as previous RAEs. However a few significant changes were introduced:

• the results were published as a graded quality profile rather than a fixed seven-point scale. This allowed the funding bodies to identify pockets of excellence wherever these might be found and reduced the 'cliff edge' effect where fine judgements at the grade boundaries could have significant funding impacts
• a formal two-tiered panel structure in RAE2008, to ensure greater consistency and international calibration
• explicit criteria in each subject to enable the proper assessment of applied, practice-based and interdisciplinary research.

For the purpose of the 2008 RAE each academic discipline was assigned to one of 67 units of assessment (UOAs). Work submitted to the exercise was assessed by panels of experts, drawn from Higher Education Institutions and the wider research community.

The 2008 RAE outcomes are expressed differently than in the 2001 RAE. There is no longer a 1-5* rating scale. This has been replaced by a quality profile which identifies the proportion of activity reaching each of four defined 'starred' quality levels.

The RAE outcomes are used by the Funding Councils to distribute their block grant for research from 2009-10. The funding model using the 2008 RAE results will be announced in spring 2009.