Purpose: To discuss the issues and challenges of digital preservation facing institutional repositories and to illustrate the Joint Information Systems Committee's (JISC) view on institutional repositories and its key initiatives in helping UK institutions address these issues. Design/methodology/approach: A combination of published work and JISC documents (public facing or internal) were used as reference material. Findings: Digital preservation is a complex process and there are still many unsolved issues which make it a challenging task for institutional repositories. However, the wide deployment of institutional repositories also provides new opportunities for digital preservation. Much could be done to consider digital preservation from the outset, to involve the authors and to embed digital preservation into repository workflow, which will ease the later preservation tasks. Research limitations/implications: A number of ongoing JISC-funded projects are briefly reported which explore different models for the provision of digital preservation services for institutional repositories. These models may be a way forward to tackle collectively the issue of long-term preservation within the setting of institutional repositories. Depending on the outcomes of the projects, further investigation and implementation could be undertaken to test the models. Practical implications: This paper will help the reader to gain a better understanding of the issues related to digital preservation in general and how JISC's work has helped to tackle these issues. Originality/value: This paper clearly states JISC's view on, and future plan for, digital repositories. This is of value to the UK educational community as JISC works on its behalf and responds to its needs.