The annual survey reports provide information on various activities, from business and public or third sector involvement in research to consultancy and the commercialisation of intellectual property. It also explores other activities intended to have direct societal benefits, such as continuing professional development and continuing education courses and providing lectures, exhibitions and other cultural activities.
Some of the data in the HE-BCI return is combined with data from elsewhere to determine the University’s HEIF allocation.
In late 2017 the Government announced a new Framework similar to REF and TEF – the Knowledge Exchange Framework (KEF). In 2019 a series of workshops and consultations were undertaken to allow HEIs to participate in the development of the KEF. In January 2020, the details of the first iteration of the KEF were published. This survey covered the academic year 2019/20 and uses many of the metrics already captured within the HE-BCI survey.