The NIG Writing Week 6 to 10 October 2025

Registration is currently closed

On popular demand, NIG organizes its third writing week in 2025. It will be comparable to the previous writing weeks, yet seasoned participants will notice some differences. For one thing, it will be held at a different location this year, namely at Kasteel van Oijen in Oijen, North Brabant. The format will also be a little bit different as will be explained below.

The general idea
All academics write. Writing skills are crucial to academic success and to the completion of research, including a PhD. Finding time for writing, however, and making that time effective, is not always easy. While a PhD candidate will have many years of substantive training and will know loads of things about loads of things when (s)he graduates, formal training in writing and real reflection on the craft of writing can be scarce. As with all skills, writing skills will develop with reflection, training and focused attention. To this end, the NIG writing week aims to create a stimulating setting where it is all about the writing itself (and not the subject of that writing). Participants will live and work for one week in a former castle where they can write, engage in structured peer-review on writing and can follow a writing workshop. Through its format, the writing week also contributes to the strength of research networks.

How does it work?
The 2025 NIG writing week will be held at Kasteel van Oijen in Oijen, a village in North Brabant, near Oss and ‘s-Hertogenbosch. Participants stay for most of the week to write and they can participate in a workshop. Compared to the earlier writing weeks, there are a few changes to the format. First of all, based on feedback from participants, the focus shifts more to time for writing in a stimulating environment while there is less focus on workshops. So even more than before it will be a writing week
Secondly, the new location offers the same, possibly even better, opportunities for good writing in a stimulating secluded setting, yet there will be less facilities than previously. NIG will take care of breakfast and lunch and two dinners, but participants will take care of their own dinner for two nights. There are of course facilities to prepare dinner and there is a restaurant nearby. Compared to previous years, this means that the 2025 Writing Week will be a little bit more on a self-service basis. The explanation is financial: NIG was able to fund much of the previous writing weeks out of unused budget from earlier years. Now that these have been spent, we need to offer a writing week in which costs and facilities are better matched while keeping the contributions by PhD candidates on an acceptable level.
Thirdly, from now on participants can choose between single rooms or shared rooms, subject to availability.