There is no objectively right weighting for the people, culture and environment, element of REF 2028.
One of the difficulties in alighting on the right weighting is that measuring people, culture and environment, is different to measuring impacts and outputs. People, culture and environment is an input. It is possible, albeit statistically unlikely, to be a great place to work and produce less than stellar research. Equally, poor workplaces can produce good research. And to add further complication everyone has a different view of what constitutes a good work environment or good work culture.
The metrics underpinning the people, culture and environment strand will therefore have to come down to what can be reasonably measured and the weighting will come down to what can command the confidence of the sector as a whole. It is both a gut feeling and a statistical test. Or as Executive Chair of Research England, Jessica Corner, wrote in a recent blog
While we are confident that a set of reliable indicators can be developed, we may reflect on the relative weighting of the People, Culture and Environment element, depending on the evidence from the work to develop indicators.
