TL;DR: REF 2021’s “Environment” element (the REF5a/REF5b statements) has been renamed and restructured for REF 2029 as SPRE — Strategy, People and Research Environment. During its pilot phase it was known as “People, Culture and Environment” (PCE); that pilot is now complete and its findings have fed into the confirmed SPRE guidance. SPRE is weighted 20% of the overall unit quality profile and is scored via two separate statements — an Institution-Level Statement (60% of the SPRE score) and a Unit-Level Statement (40%) — each covering four fixed sections. The evidence period already runs from 1 August 2020, so institutions that have not started building a SPRE evidence base are already three-plus years into the window without realising it.
From “People, Culture and Environment” to SPRE
Research England ran a pilot exercise under the working title “People, Culture and Environment” (PCE) as part of the development process for the next Research Excellence Framework cycle. That pilot is complete, and its findings shaped the guidance now published for what has been formally named Strategy, People and Research Environment (SPRE) — the REF 2029 successor to REF 2021’s Environment element. Institutions and research-culture leads who have been tracking “PCE” in planning documents should treat SPRE as the current, operative name; PCE was a pilot label, not a separate, additional exercise.
This naming shift is not cosmetic. REF 2021’s Environment element was assessed almost entirely through institution- and unit-level REF5a/REF5b narrative statements describing research environment, with comparatively light emphasis on an explicit strategy and people dimension as a formally weighted, separately labelled component. SPRE elevates strategy and people to equal billing with environment in the element’s own name, which mirrors where UK sector conversation has actually moved since 2021 — research culture, EDI in research practice, and researcher development have become central to funder expectations (see UKRI’s own Researcher Development Concordat commitments) rather than a subsection of an environment narrative.
The 20% weighting, and how SPRE is scored
Research England’s published SPRE guidance confirms the element is weighted 20% of the overall unit quality profile in REF 2029. It is scored through two distinct, separately assessed statements:
- Institution-Level Statement (ILS) — 60% of the SPRE score. A single statement submitted at institution level, covering the four sections below.
- Unit-Level Statement (ULS) — 40% of the SPRE score. Submitted per unit of assessment, covering the same four sections, plus two components with no REF 2021 equivalent: a Statement of Representation and a Research Community Statement.
Both statements are assessed against the same four fixed sections:
- Context, mission and strategy
- People
- Income, infrastructure and facilities
- Collaboration, engagement and impact
Research England’s guidance notes that word count will be flexible across these four sections, so institutions and units can weight their own narrative toward whichever section carries the strongest evidence, rather than being forced into an even split.
How this differs from REF 2021’s Environment element
For research administrators who lived through REF 2021, the practical differences worth flagging to institutional leadership are:
- A genuine unit-level people/community layer. REF 2021’s REF5a (institution) and REF5b (unit) environment statements existed, but ULS’s Statement of Representation and Research Community Statement are new requirements with no direct REF 2021 precedent — they ask units to evidence how representative and well-supported their research community actually is, not just describe environment inputs.
- A formal 60/40 institution/unit split inside a single element. REF 2021 treated REF5a and REF5b as parts of the same Environment element without publishing an equivalent internal weighting split; SPRE’s 60/40 ILS/ULS split is explicit.
- The element’s own name now foregrounds strategy and people, not just environment. That’s a signal of what panels will expect to see evidenced — institutional strategy coherence and researcher-facing culture, not only facilities and income data.
Elsewhere in REF 2029, the former Outputs element has similarly been renamed and restructured as Contributions to Knowledge and Understanding (CKU), which decouples outputs from individual staff in favour of a “substantive link” eligibility test (see CASRAI’s guide to REF 2029’s output portability rules and output eligibility period guide for the detail). SPRE is one part of a broader REF 2029 restructuring, not an isolated rename.
What’s still to be finalised
Research England’s own REF 2029 guidance site states plainly that all REF 2029 guidance modules, SPRE included, will only be formally finalised in 2026 and “may be subject to small revisions.” Panel-specific assessment criteria and detailed submission templates are still to follow the general guidance. Institutions should treat the structure above — the 20% weighting, the 60/40 ILS/ULS split, and the four sections — as the confirmed framework, while expecting some detail (word limits, indicator lists, panel criteria) to firm up over the course of 2026. Research England has also indicated smaller institutions, including single-unit submitters, may be offered a simplified approach; that detail was not yet finalised as of this writing.
What UK research offices should start gathering now
The single most important practical fact for research-culture leads and RA offices: SPRE’s evidence period is not a future window. Research England’s guidance sets the evidence period at 1 August 2020 to 31 July 2028 — meaning institutions have already been inside the assessed period for several years, whether or not they have been deliberately collecting SPRE-relevant evidence. Waiting for finalised templates before starting to gather evidence risks losing early-period material that is hard to reconstruct retrospectively.
Concrete steps worth starting now, ahead of finalised templates:
- Map existing REF 2021 REF5a/REF5b content against the four SPRE sections (context/mission/strategy, people, income/infrastructure/facilities, collaboration/engagement/impact) to identify where institution-level narrative already exists and where genuine gaps sit — particularly around the new Statement of Representation and Research Community Statement requirements, which have no REF 2021 forerunner to reuse.
- Start a running evidence log for the “people” section now, covering researcher development activity, EDI-in-research-practice initiatives, and career-stage support, dated and attributable back to August 2020 where records allow — this is the section most likely to require longitudinal evidence rather than a snapshot.
- Coordinate with institutional strategy/planning offices early. Because the ILS carries 60% of the SPRE score and is submitted once at institution level, its narrative needs to reconcile with (not duplicate or contradict) each unit’s ULS submission — that coordination is easier to design now than to retrofit close to submission.
- Track 2029.ref.ac.uk directly rather than relying on secondary summaries (including this one), given Research England’s own caution that guidance may see small revisions through 2026. Re-check the SPRE guidance page before finalising any internal planning documents built on the detail above.
- Don’t discard REF 2021 environment-statement evidence as irrelevant — much of the underlying data (income, infrastructure, collaboration record) carries forward conceptually into SPRE’s equivalent sections, even where the statement structure and weighting have changed.
Frequently asked questions
Is “People, Culture and Environment” (PCE) still the correct name for this REF 2029 element?
No. PCE was the working name used during Research England’s pilot exercise. The confirmed, formally published name for the REF 2029 element is Strategy, People and Research Environment (SPRE), succeeding REF 2021’s Environment element. Institutional planning documents still referencing “PCE” should be updated to SPRE.
What percentage of the REF 2029 quality profile does SPRE carry?
SPRE is weighted 20% of the overall unit quality profile, per Research England’s published SPRE guidance.
What’s the difference between the Institution-Level Statement and Unit-Level Statement?
The Institution-Level Statement (ILS) is a single statement submitted at institution level and carries 60% of the SPRE score. The Unit-Level Statement (ULS) is submitted per unit of assessment, carries 40% of the SPRE score, and additionally requires a Statement of Representation and a Research Community Statement — both new requirements with no REF 2021 equivalent.
When does the SPRE evidence period start and end?
Research England’s guidance sets the evidence period from 1 August 2020 to 31 July 2028.
When will REF 2029 SPRE guidance be finalised?
Research England states all REF 2029 guidance, including SPRE, will be formally finalised in 2026, and cautions that published guidance “may be subject to small revisions” before then.
