The Hidden REF 26 is open & dementia research belongs in it

Think about the last study you were part of. Behind the paper there was probably a research nurse who kept participants coming back, a data manager who cleaned years of cohort records, a brain bank technician, a PPI coordinator who made the work make sense to the people it was for, or a piece of analysis code that someone built and maintained without ever getting a line on a grant. None of that shows up in the Research Excellence Framework. The Hidden REF exists to change that, and the 2026 competition is now open for submissions.

The Hidden REF celebrates the full range of outputs and people that move research forward but get overlooked by traditional assessment. That covers data, software, protocols and infrastructure, and it covers the roles research depends on but rarely names: technical specialists, research managers, facility staff and the many professionals without whom the work would not happen. It started as a one-off competition in 2020 and has since grown into a national campaign, now backed by Research England through the Embedding Trust in Evaluation project. This is its fourth outing, following 2020, 2021 and 2024.

Across 25 categories, anyone affiliated with a UK research organisation can submit, whatever their role and whatever their REF history. You do not need a track record of REF submissions, and it does not matter if your organisation is not returnable to the REF.

Why this matters for our field

Dementia and neurodegeneration research is exactly the kind of work where these contributions are easy to lose. It runs on long cohort studies, biobanks and brain banks, imaging facilities, biomarker pipelines, training resources, and the trust built over years with people living with dementia and their families. Those things often decide whether the science works at all, and almost none of them are captured by conventional metrics. The Hidden REF is one of the few national mechanisms actively trying to fix that.

There is a practical reason to take part too. New for 2026, the judging panels will assess entries using the REF’s own guidance on originality, significance and rigour. That makes an entry genuinely useful practice for writing non-traditional output (NTO) submissions ahead of REF 2029, which is something a lot of early career researchers have never had a reason to do. Writing up a dataset, a piece of software or a training course against those criteria is good preparation whether or not you win.

The categories

The 25 categories cover a lot of ground, and several map straight onto dementia research. Among them are Hidden Role, for nominating a colleague whose work has been instrumental, alongside Research Infrastructure, Research Datasets and Databases, Software, Training Materials and Courses, Public Engagement, Citizen Science and Community Building. New this year is a category for Environmental Sustainability Research. The full list, which has been built up from community suggestions since 2020, is on the Hidden REF site.

What an entry involves

Entries are short. For the Hidden Role category you write a description of the person and their contribution to research, up to 900 words, and it is worth talking to them first so you describe their work accurately. For an output, you provide a 300 word summary plus a description of how it meets each of the three criteria, up to 300 words for each. There is a submission template on the site to help you structure it.

Key dates

Submissions are open now and close on 13 September. Results are announced at an awards ceremony in November.

If you have questions, there is a drop-in session on 23 June, 11.00 to 12.00 BST, on Zoom, where you can ask the team anything about entering, or about the Hidden REF more broadly.

Get involved

If your own work fits one of the categories, put it forward. Know a colleague whose contribution has been instrumental? The Hidden Role category exists for exactly that, just check they are happy with how you have described their work first. And even if you are not entering this time, sharing the competition with your networks helps make the wider case that this work counts.

Full details, all 25 categories and the submission portal are at hidden-ref.org/hidden-ref-competition, and the drop-in session details are at hidden-ref.org/resources/community-calls.