The Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) has since 1986 reviewed research in all participating institutions, and published results. These have been used to distribute funding council resources for research selectively on the basis of quality. The exercise has taken place every four to five years and the most recent and final one took place at the end of 2008.
The successor to the RAE is the Research Excellence Framework (REF). The REF will be introduced in 2014 and will inform funding from 2015-16. The funding councils' Assessment Framework and Guidance on Submissions has been published.
See Chapter 3 of Getting to Grips with Research and Knowledge Transfer for more on the assessment of research quality.