The Research Excellence Framework (REF) is the system for assessing the quality of research in UK higher education institutions, including research impact, the research environment, research publications and other outputs.

Psychology, Psychiatry and Neuroscience (REF 2021 Unit of Assessment 4, UOA 4) performed very well with 86% of impact case studies achieving the top rating of 4* (outstanding impacts in terms of reach and significance). This is far above the UK sector-wide score for impact which was 50% at 4*. The impact result for UOA 4 is also considerably improved from the last exercise (REF 2014), in which impact was rated as 60% 4*.

One of the high-scoring impact case studies was led by Prof Audrey Bowen, who leads the Centre’s research theme – Rehabilitation and Living with Disability. Audrey’s case study describes how her team’s research on post-stroke reviews and action-planning toolkits (GM-SAT/GM-SAT2) and on specific outcome measures for people with psychological and communication difficulties after stroke (COAST/Carer-COAST, PRECiS) led to far-reaching impact. The team, working with stroke survivors, produced tools to improve patient-centred care and influenced national policy and guidance. They changed clinical practice by increasing the number of six-month reviews conducted regionally and nationally, and improved patient care and recovery regionally, nationally and internationally.

You can view Audrey’s impact case study via the Impact tab of her University of Manchester research profile.
The University of Manchester’s REF2021 results can be viewed here.

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