A ‘portfolio’ or ‘folio’ is a common format for representing practice research. They are commonly used to submit practice research materials to research assessment exercises such as the Research Excellence Framework (REF). Portfolios in this context should not be confused with the collection of work needed to apply for art school.
A ‘portfolio’ can be used to support and contextualise practice research outputs. They help others to understand the research processes you went through and the overall significance and research dimensions of the work. Portfolios typically include a discussion of the research process (the question and issues being explored, the process of discovery, methodology used, and the creative/intellectual context which the work draws, challenges or critiques), research insights (the findings, discoveries or creative outcomes of that process), and the time and manner of dissemination (how and where the research was shared).
Open access portfolios
Several UK universities have made a selection of their portfolios available open access.
At Goldsmiths, Lauren Redhead from the Music department has made several of her research portfolios available on GRO. Other example portfolios include:
The Glasgow School of Art have made their guide to creating a practice research portfolio and an annotated template available open access.
Any researchers at Goldsmiths who wish to make a copy of the portfolio they produced for REF2021 available on GRO can email gro@gold.ac.uk for further advice.
Further guidance
At Goldsmiths, the Director of Research in your department will be able to offer further guidance on preparing a practice research portfolio.
For REF2021, guidance was provided by REF on the submission of practice research outputs. This page will be updated when further guidance is provided for REF2029. Information on the support provided at Goldsmiths for the submission of practice research outputs to the next REF exercise will be provided on the REF2029 Goldmine pages.