UK universities face mounting scrutiny over how they describe research excellence for the next Research Excellence Framework (REF 2029). Panellists are reportedly pressing for audit-ready rules after concerns emerged about “polishing” narrative REF statements—especially in the renamed “strategy, people and research environment” (SPRE) component. The reported debate centers on how officials will substantiate excellence claims when evidence is narrative-driven, following a prior pilot that found limited metrics available for clean comparisons without imposing substantial burden on institutions. The development matters for UK research governance because the block-grant allocation of around £2 billion annually is set to be influenced by SPRE scoring, intensifying the compliance and documentation challenge for universities as they draft submissions amid increasing AI-enabled drafting tools.