SPRE (Strategy, People and Research Environment)

SPRE is the REF 2029 assessment element scoring the conditions an institution and its submitting units put in place to enable research, replacing REF 2021's Environment element (REF5a/REF5b). It is worth 20% of the overall REF 2029 quality profile, combining an Institution-Level Statement (ILS, 60% of the SPRE score) and a Unit-Level Statement (ULS, 40%), each covering context/mission/strategy, people, income/infrastructure/facilities, and collaboration/engagement/impact. Guidance is still being finalised through 2026.

ByCASRAI Editorial Board

· Last updated 23 Jul 2026

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Worked examples

Is an instance

A university's Institution-Level Statement describing its overarching research strategy, support for early-career researchers, and a shared research-infrastructure investment is SPRE evidence, scored against the ILS's context/mission/strategy and people sections.

Is an instance

A department's Unit-Level Statement including a Research Community Statement (career-stage composition of staff) and a Statement of Representation (how submitted outputs reflect the unit's full research activity) is SPRE evidence specific to requirements new to REF 2029's ULS.

Looks similar, but isn't

Not an instance

A description of an individual output's methodological rigour is not SPRE evidence — outputs are assessed under REF 2029's separate outputs element via peer review, independent of the environment/people statements.

Not an instance

A case study describing a specific realised effect of research on policy or practice is assessed under the engagement and impact element, not SPRE, even though a unit's general approach to enabling impact does fall within the ULS.

Strategy, People and Research Environment (SPRE) is the REF 2029 assessment element that succeeds REF 2021’s “Environment” element (previously submitted as REF5a/REF5b institutional and unit-level environment statements). Per REF 2029’s own guidance published at 2029.ref.ac.uk, SPRE contributes 20% of the overall unit quality profile, scored from two linked statements: an Institution-Level Statement (ILS), weighted 60% of the SPRE score, and a Unit-Level Statement (ULS), weighted 40%. SPRE guidance passed through an interim pilot phase run under the working name “People, Culture and Environment” (PCE); the funding bodies state that all REF 2029 guidance, including SPRE’s, is still being finalised through 2026, so submitting institutions should treat structural and weighting detail as subject to further, though likely incremental, revision until Research England confirms final assessment criteria.

What makes something SPRE evidence

Operationally, a piece of evidence belongs to SPRE if it documents the conditions an institution or unit puts in place to enable research, rather than the research outputs or their external effects themselves. Both the ILS and the ULS are organised around four common sections: (1) context, mission and strategy; (2) people; (3) income, infrastructure and facilities; and (4) collaboration, engagement and impact. The ULS additionally carries three elements that have no REF 2021 equivalent: a Statement of Representation (showing how the unit’s submitted outputs reflect the full diversity of its research activity), a Research Community Statement (describing the roles, career stages, and people supporting the unit), and details of the unit’s approach to enabling impact.

Institution-level vs. unit-level statements

REF 2021 required a single institutional environment statement (REF5a) plus a unit-level environment statement per submitted unit of assessment (REF5b). REF 2029’s SPRE keeps that two-tier structure — an institution-wide ILS plus a per-unit ULS — but assessed and weighted them explicitly (60/40) as components of one combined SPRE score, rather than as separate environment judgements folded into a single 15% weighting as under REF 2021. Guidance on the SPRE templates has, at points, reverted toward the REF 2021 environment-statement format specifically to reduce the burden increase that the PCE pilot exercise had identified.

Worked examples

A university’s Institution-Level Statement describing its overarching research strategy, its support structures for early-career and precarious-contract researchers, and a major shared research-infrastructure investment is SPRE evidence — it speaks directly to the “context, mission and strategy” and “people” sections the ILS is scored against.
A submitting department’s Unit-Level Statement that includes a Research Community Statement setting out the career-stage composition of its research staff, and a Statement of Representation explaining how the outputs submitted for assessment reflect the unit’s full body of research activity, is SPRE evidence specific to requirements introduced for REF 2029’s ULS (they have no REF 2021 counterpart).

What SPRE is not

A description of an individual output’s methodological rigour or contribution to a field is not SPRE evidence — that is assessed under REF 2029’s separate outputs element (the successor to REF 2021’s “outputs” element, tentatively named “Contribution to Knowledge and Understanding” in early Future Research Assessment Programme proposals), which subject panels judge through peer review independently of the environment/people statements. Similarly, a case study describing research’s effect on policy, practice, or the public is assessed under the engagement and impact element, not SPRE, even though a unit’s general approach to enabling impact — as opposed to a specific realised impact — does fall within the ULS.

References

REF 2029, “Strategy, People and Research Environment guidance” and “People, Culture and Environment (PCE) Pilot,” 2029.ref.ac.uk (accessed 2026-07).
Research England, Decisions on REF 2029 (2023) and subsequent REF 2029 guidance updates.

Use in your systems

JATS XML <role> element

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Schema.org DefinedTerm (JSON-LD)

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