In defence of research bureaucracy – UKRIO at UUK’s Research & Innovation Conference

In defence of research bureaucracy

UKRIO at the Universities UK Research and Innovation Conference 2025

On 10 December, UKRIO contributed to Universities UK’s Research and Innovation Conference 2025, which brought together senior leaders, researchers, and policymakers from across the sector. The conference provided an important opportunity to shape national conversations about how research is governed, supported, and sustained within higher education.

As an invited speaker on the conference’s Research Bureaucracy: Sector-wide Transformation panel discussion, our CEO, Stephanie Neave, challenged assumptions that administrative processes are inherently burdensome, highlighting the essential role that proportionate, well-designed systems play in underpinning research integrity.

REF 2029 update and UKRIO’s response

The conference also served as the venue for a significant policy update, with Universities UK announcing that the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2029 exercise will resume following the pause initiated in September, with key changes and updated guidance, including:

  • Replacing the previously named ‘People, Culture, and Environment’ (PCE) with ‘Strategy, People, and Research Environment’ (SPRE)
  • Increasing the weighting for Contributions to Knowledge and Understanding (CKU) to 55%, such that the weighting for SPRE will now stand at 20% (compared to 25% originally allocated to PCE)
  • Retaining elements of REF 2021 to reduce burdens on the sector

Responding to this announcement, our CEO, Stephanie Neave, emphasised the importance of approaching REF 2029 not simply as an evaluative exercise, but as part of the wider research ecosystem that shapes behaviour, culture, and standards across the sector. As Stephanie noted in her response:

“It is easy to characterise the systems that safeguard research integrity as bureaucratic or burdensome. But these structures exist for a reason: to ensure that research is accountable, transparent, and fair, and that it is carried out in environments where integrity can take root and thrive. The evidence is clear that these conditions are not peripheral to excellence – they underpin it.”

🔗 You can read Stephanie’s full response to the REF announcement here.

Research bureaucracy: Sector-led transformation

The theme of research bureaucracy was explored in depth during a panel discussion at the conference, to which Stephanie was an invited speaker alongside other senior leaders from across the sector. The panel comprised:

  • Chair: Professor Andrew Jones, Vice-Chancellor and President, Brunel University of London, and Policy Lead (Research and Innovation), Universities UK Board
  • Professor Marcus Munafò, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Provost, University of Bath, and Executive Director, UK Reproducibility Network (UKRN)
  • Stephanie Neave, Chief Executive Officer, UK Research Integrity Office (UKRIO)
  • Victoria Moody, Director of Higher Education and Research, Jisc
  • Rod Viggers, Director Risk, Assurance, Counter Fraud and Investigations, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)

As a panellist, Stephanie delivered a timely message: well‑designed research bureaucracy is not a barrier to excellence, but its foundation. Stephanie challenged the framing of bureaucracy as inherently incompatible with innovation, noting that calls for ‘efficiency’ are often shorthand for making research faster and cheaper, rather than better – but this is too often a false economy. True efficiency, she argued, lies in ensuring that time, funding, and expertise are invested wisely, in ways that support research that is both impactful and trustworthy.

Drawing on UKRIO’s advisory, training, and guidance work, Stephanie outlined how research management and governance can be designed to be fair, protective, and beneficial, while actively reducing unnecessary administrative burden. She highlighted UKRIO’s role in clarifying requirements, harmonising processes, and supporting organisations to develop systems that reinforce research integrity without adding avoidable complexity.

She concluded by setting out the characteristics of an effective research bureaucracy – one that is inclusive, clear, and efficient; that reinforces positive behaviours; that is well integrated with wider institutional practices; and that remains flexible and responsive to change. Crucially, she emphasised that transformation in this area is not a one-off process, but an ongoing, collective endeavour grounded in a shared commitment to research integrity.

Closing reflections

UKRIO’s contribution to the conference reinforced its ongoing role in sector discussions about how research is governed and supported. The event provided an important forum to reflect on how proportionate, well-designed bureaucracy can support integrity in practice, and how continued dialogue across the sector is needed to ensure that administrative systems serve research effectively.

Media enquiries: 
Jasper Scott 
Communications and Engagement Manager,
UK Research Integrity Office 
jasper.scott@ukrio.org