Axed staff on submissions leaves bad taste as REF deadline passes

I don't wish to be too cyncical but I do find the idea that, by employing researchers, universities are somehow committing to "sustaining people’s careers" just a litlle naive. At best they are investing in research capacity but in many cases they are simply buying existing outputs. The failure of HEFCE /government to address this issue in the current REF guidance has created an (overblown) transfer market, which is now in decline. Is there anyone in HE who did not predict this?

Should a company go into production based on the R&D output of a redundant scientist?

REF is so broken and that it's a complete joke.

"At best they are investing in research capacity but in many cases they are simply buying existing outputs." It is more of the latter than the former. Capacity building takes time so requires a long term view. What is the shelf-life of an average head of school? REF has fostered a breed of rent seekers and other fair wealther types. With enough funds and brutality anyone can build a top ranked institution on a short-term basis. What people fail to appreciate is that enduring world class institutions have evolved and developed over a long time on solid foundations and that is reflected in their ethos and work culture, they are not just cobbeled together by "buying" different assets and throwing them together. Indeed the best institutions in the world are so not because of any alphabet soup that you might come up with.