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Department of Statistics

Research Excellence Framework: REF2021

Warwick Mathematical Sciences REF2021

The outcomes of Research Excellence Framework REF2021 have been published.

The Warwick submission in Mathematical Sciences combined the the Department of Statistics and Warwick Mathematics Institute.

The submission comprised

  • 294 published research articles (outputs) from 139 staff, 49 of whom are from the Department of Statistics. (Department staff also contributed to Warwick's REF submissions for Computer Science and Life Sciences.)
  • 9 detailed cases studies highlighting the impact of our research.
  • A discursive component detailing the research environment.

Outstanding results

The research profile returned by REF2021 shows the outstanding quality of research Warwick Mathematical Science. The Department of Statistics continues to be one of the foremost centres of the discipline within the country.

Overall Research Profile

Pie chart: 65% World Leading; 34% Internationally Excellent; 1% Internationally Recognised.
Depiction of research in the department.

World Leading Research

REF2021 is good news for Warwick Statistics on all fronts: 55.6% of outputs and 72.2% of impacts were ranked World Leading, and the environment is recognised as being very strong.

Warwick Statistics and Warwick Mathematics Institute together rank third nationally among Mathematical Sciences research groups for research power and sixth for research quality (Times Higher Education), in REF2021, the most recent UK government research assessment.

Breakdown by Individual Profile

REF2021 results consist of quality profiles for

  • Outputs
  • Impact
  • Environment

Each profile quantifies the proportion of the submission was at

  • 4* (`world leading’)
  • 3* (`internationally excellent’)
  • 2* (`internationally recognized’)
  • 1* (`nationally recognized’)
  • unclassified

Our Outputs

55.6% 4*; 43% 3*; 1.1% 2*

Our portfolio of 294 outputs obtained the following profile:

  • 55.6% 4*
  • 43.0% 3*
  • 1.1% 2*
  • 0.3% unclassified

Our Impact

72.2% 4*; 27.8% 3*

Our portfolio on 9 impact case studies obtained the following profile:

  • 72.2% 4*
  • 27.8% 3*

Our Environment

87.5% 4*; 12.5% 3*

Our environment profile was:

  • 87.5% 4*
  • 12.5% 3*

Impact

Achieving real-world impact is central to our research, with our Applied Statistics & Risk Unit providing one substantial route to impact.

Impact Case Studies

A total of 9 impact case studies were submitted to this unit of assessment, 4 of which demonstrated the impact of statistical research at Warwick. Staff from the department were also jointly submitted to other units of assessment (computer science and life sciences) and one of the ICS submitted to the CS panel derived from the work of a member of staff jointly appointed to Statistics and Computer Science.

Impact case studies in Statistics covered a broad range of areas and types of impact:

  • Decision Support for Risk Mitigation
  • Election Exit Polling
  • Expert Witness contributions in Medical and Life Expectancy Litigation

  • Statistical Modelling for Toxicity Assessment

  • Urban Air Quality Monitoring

See more about our impact in Statistics and that in Warwick Mathematics Institute.

About REF

The REF is the UK’s system for assessing the quality of research in UK higher education institutions. It first took place in 2014. The second exercise took place in 2021. See REF2021 for full details.