- Now in its fifth year, the Research England framework enables institutions to track how well they share knowledge and innovation
- Portsmouth has been given top marks in two of the framework's key criteria
- The University has shown growing success in turning research into commercial products
The University of Portsmouth's success in sharing knowledge, ideas and experience to benefit both the economy and society, has been recognised in the latest Knowledge Exchange Framework (KEF).
The KEF, produced by funding body Research England , is a way of measuring the impact universities have on businesses, their community and the wider world. Now in its fifth year, it enables institutions to track their progress, benchmark performance, and make smarter decisions about how they share knowledge and innovation.
The framework evaluates performance across seven key areas - called KEF Perspectives - making it easier for universities, government, and the public to see where impact is happening, and where it can grow. Each perspective's performance is scored from 1 (very low) to 5 (very high).
Universities are grouped into clusters and compared against similar institutions. Portsmouth is in the biggest cluster - Cluster E - comprising large universities with broad discipline portfolios generating excellent research. In this, Portsmouth exceeds the average score for its cluster overall.
While there's no national ranking, universities are still able to see how they compare with the country's average scores. Portsmouth is rated either at or above the national average in four of the KEF criteria, including 5 out of 5 in 'Research Partnerships' and 'IP and Commercialisation', and 4 out of 5 in 'Local Growth and Regeneration', 'Working with Business', and 'Working with the Public and Third Sector'.
The high assessment is a recognition of collaborative projects including the University's long standing relationship with Hampshire Constabulary through The Forensic Innovation Centre (FIC). Earlier this year, the force resigned a commitment to the partnership, which co-locates operational policing forensic units in an academic setting, supporting education and training for aspiring and serving police officers, police staff and trainees.
These results show what happens when universities really engage with their communities.
Professor Vikas Kumar, Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research and Innovation at the University of Portsmouth
Professor Vikas Kumar , Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research and Innovation at the University of Portsmouth, said: "These results show what happens when universities really engage with their communities. Our partnership with Hampshire Constabulary is a perfect example - we're not just sharing research, we're helping solve real policing challenges while training the next generation of forensic experts. That's knowledge exchange at its best."
In IP and commercialisation, the University has improved from a midrange score of 3 in 2022 to the highest of 5, showing growing success in turning research into commercial products.
The KEF results also reflect Portsmouth's excellent performance in delivering Knowledge Transfer Partnerships , which help businesses improve their competitiveness and productivity by working with universities. Over the past two decades, the University has delivered more than 100 partnerships, which have been awarded a cumulative £9.2m in grants and £4.9m in matched funding from businesses.
This includes a collaboration between its School of Computing and accident repair group ABL 1 Touch , which aims to develop a system that can quickly and accurately pinpoint the damage to a car following a collision and a research project led by the University and Portsmouth City Council (PCC) which secured £320,000 in funding to further develop the way public services are assessed and developed in the city.
Meanwhile, the University launched the ' Research to Value' programme this year, an initiative designed to help researchers and professionals turn their ideas into real-world solutions. The scheme, run by Skillfluence , gave academics a clear process for identifying opportunities, reducing risks, and moving innovative ideas toward commercial success.
It is part of the £487,000 'Bridging the Gap' project, funded by UKRI and led by the University's Department of Research and Innovation (DRI), that aims to create more economic value from existing University research in the Wessex region.
The KEF sits alongside the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) and the Research Excellence Framework (REF), and together they provide a fuller picture of how universities are performing and what impact they're having.
In the last TEF assessment in 2023, the University received the highest possible Gold rating , and in 2022 it received impressive REF outcomes where Portsmouth was ranked third of all modern UK universities for research power.
Earlier this month, the four UK higher education funding bodies announced the appointment of panels for the criteria-setting phase of the next national assessment of research quality across UK universities - REF 2029 - which include University of Portsmouth academics.
The full results of KEF 2025 are available on the Research England website .
