PEP Network
culture change

REF 2029: People, Culture and Environment, Exploring the Draft Guidance

updated on 15 May 2025
3 minutes

A recent PEP network session explored the draft guidance for the People, Culture and Environment REF Profile, and the possibilities it creates for embedding excellent support for Public Engagement in HEIs. The guidance has been piloted with a range of HEIs, to inform the final guidance which will be drafted later on this year. 

The NCCPE was a partner in the PCE Indicators project, run by Vitae and Technopolis, which generated a set of recommendations which have informed the guidance.

On this page you'll find copies of the slides, a recording of the event and a link to an interactive Padlet activity.

The event was chaired by NCCPE co-directors Sophie Duncan and Paul Manners, who shared the NCCPE’s experience and expertise in supporting culture change in universities. It also included presentations from Lucy Leiper and Ben Tatler, from the University of Aberdeen and Sarah Priston from Bath Spa University. Lucy and Ben shared the work Aberdeen has been doing to develop a Research Cultures strategy, and Sarah described her experience leading Bath Spa’s involvement in the PCE pilot.

The event covered:

  • The evolution of the guidance and the wider context for the revised PCE profile.
  • The shape of the pilot guidance and the opportunities it presents for Public Engagement.
  • Explored how the guidance can be implemented, and if and how it might be enhanced.
  • Considered how PE Professionals might use the opportunities created by the new profile to progress culture change in their institutions and explore some examples of ‘work in progress’ in different HEIs.

Watch the event recording

Download the event presentation

Use the PCE Maturity Matrix to assess your organisation.

You can add your thoughts to this Padlet or make a copy for yourself.

Assess your organisation on Padlet

Questions and answers from the event

What's the uptake among academics?

So far this has been good. We are currently talking about it in different contexts - going around schools to present and discuss. At the moment it has been well received and it is useful that we have some projects (eg PORTAL) launched so that we can explain HOW the strategy is helping and make it less abstract.

Ben, University of Aberdeen

Have you found any particular sticking points (people, processes, other?)

The answer to this must be yes, but at the moment I am feeling optimistic! Resource is of course an issue for many of us in the sector - both in terms of time and money. In that respect, not having lots of money to do this is making sure we think very carefully about the need for things we do and to ensure they are low resource-demanding and sustainable.

Ben, University of Aberdeen

Has there been any thinking at this stage about evidencing different elements/stages of the maturity framework?

Yes - lots of thinking here - as an experimental psychologist I love evidence! The key approach we are taking is that there are many forms of evidence both quantitative and qualitative and that different sources of evidence are appropriate for different contexts. Also that no one metric / source of evidence can ever tell the full story.

Ben, University of Aberdeen

The hard (fun?) part of thinking about evidence is not just thinking about the range of evidence but also what that will make sense in different disciplines - we are enjoying exploring that with colleagues and sharing practice across our culture network.
 Lucy, University of Aberdeen

Do you think universities / UOAs will feel able to be open and honest about the contexts that they are in? In terms of providing that authentic story about the difficulties faced etc?

That's a tricky thing with REF - to me - it's very much 'best in show' - your best outputs and your best Impact Case Studies (that are focused on positive outcomes) and therefore....will this lead to HEIs only sharing their 'best' environment and culture examples....? KEF and KEC feels a bit more suited to sharing the 'journey', progress and challenges etc and how these were overcome.

Attendee

I agree - we need to be honest about the problems or this could all feel a little unauthentic - not easy for REF to encourage that.

Ben, Unviersity of Aberdeen

You can be honest about how you have addressed challenges and that these actions have made a different, however, institutions will only want to focus on the positives, I think this is inevitable when the stakes are so high with REF and how it underpins QR funding and league tables etc.

Sarah, Bath Spa University

REF Resources