From our positions as a doctoral student (Rachel) and a senior academic (Carol) we feel and see what seems like a relentlessly increasing pressure on doctoral students and emerging researchers to engage in activities which a) position them well in an increasingly competitive academic job market (Barnacle and Dall’Alba, 2011), and b) enable them to develop a career profile with focus and direction. Central to this is the expectation that doctoral students and emerging researchers ought to publish from early on in their academic career. These pressures have intensified with the Research Excellence Framework (2014), and are likely to intensify further depending on the implementation of the Stern Review (2016) and the closer we get to the next REF. We are writing here about the UK but similar pressures exist in different international contexts.

Institutional support for writing beyond the doctorate for doctoral students and emerging researchers is often limited. We want I-Win to do a little bit to fill the gaps in providing interesting conversations, structured support and a range of resources to support emerging researchers in advancing their writing in a range of different writing formats and genres.