Executive summary
Purpose
1. This document asks higher education institutions (HEIs) to update information on their research activity.
Key points
2. The updated data will inform our distribution of research funds for the 2009-10 academic year.
3. The most significant change made to the survey this year is the removal of the requirement to return data relating to research assistants and research fellows.
4. All HEIs that made submissions to the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE 2008) should complete this survey.
5. Institutions should note that the data reported to this survey will need to be provided according to the RAE 2008 'units of assessment' definitions.
6. This document provides:
- Guidance notes for completing the Research Activity Survey 2008 (RAS08).
- Definitions used in the RAS08 survey (Annexes A and B).
- Examples of the survey tables (Annex C).
- Details of how to obtain workbook templates and upload data (Annex D).
7. We will make workbooks available to nominated RAS contacts at institutions in November 2008.
Action required
8. Survey data should be uploaded to the HEFCE extranet by noon on Thursday 11 December 2008.
