Poster can be found in location 19.

Life as a doctoral candidate can be lonely. Having a supporting network of fellow candidates can have a big impact on learning, motivation and wellbeing. A Community of Practice can not only be part of this network, but also support learning and wellbeing. It is defined by Wegner et al. (2002, p. 4) as: “a group of people who share a concern, a set of problems, or a passion about a topic, and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by interacting on an ongoing basis”. The Student International Community of Practice (SICoP) is a network of doctoral candidates; a subgroup of the The Person-centred Practice International Community of Practice CIC (PCP-ICoP). It was founded in 2010 by a group of doctoral candidates dedicated to person-centred research. The aim of SICoP is to offer a safe space for connection and reconnection, reflection and learning. The overarching unifying topic is person-centred research. The community shares a virtual platform, meets twice a year and uses social media for informal contacts. In 2015, SICoP members critically reflected their experiences of being a SICoP member (Lynch & Frost 2015). Four years later, using creative hermeneutics, another group of subsequent SICoP members reflected and shared their experiences (Sanders et al. 2020). In this presentation, we share how doctoral candidates experience being a member of SICoP, how we meet challenges like keeping SICoP sustainable and maintaining connections, and how candidates benefit from this community of practice.