Individualized Development Plan (IDP) for Graduate Students and Postdoctoral Researchers
Overview
An Individualized Development Plan (IDP) is a tool designed to assist graduate students and postdoctoral researchers in setting professional goals, monitoring progress, and developing skills essential for their academic and career success. It encourages proactive engagement in career planning and provides a structured framework for discussions with faculty mentors. Both NSF and NIH have embraced the IDP or similar tool as a key component for enhancing STEM graduate and postdoctoral programs, and may require IDPs for graduate students and postdoctoral researchers on funded projects.
NBER recognizes that graduate student research assistants and postdocs often have multiple faculty mentors, including faculty on their dissertation committee at their home institution as well as the investigators on their NBER grant supported research project. Graduate student research assistants and postdocs are encouraged to review their IDP with each of their mentors regularly.
Purpose
The primary purposes of the IDP are to:
- Facilitate Goal Setting: Help students and postdocs define short-term and long-term academic, research, and career objectives.
- Identify Skill Gaps: Enable students and postdocs to assess their current skills and identify areas needing development.
- Guide Professional Development: Provide a roadmap for acquiring necessary skills through coursework, workshops, research experiences, and other opportunities.
- Enhance Mentoring Relationships: Serve as a basis for productive conversations between students/postdocs and their faculty mentors, fostering mutual understanding of expectations and progress.
- Promote Self-Reflection: Encourage students to regularly evaluate their progress and adapt their plans as their goals evolve.
Requirements
NBER recommends the use of IDPs for all graduate students and postdocs.
As of May 20, 2024, the National Science Foundation (NSF) requires graduate student research assistants and postdocs who receive substantial support from an NSF award to “have an Individual Development Plan, which is updated annually, that maps the educational goals, career exploration, and professional development of the individual.” Substantial support is defined as one person month or more of support during the annual reporting period under the award. PIs will need to certify in annual and final reports that they are complying with this requirement for their graduate student research assistants and postdocs.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) encourages the use of IDPs for graduate students and postdoctoral researchers supported by NIH awards, regardless of their position title. PIs’ annual progress reports include a section to indicate whether and how IDPs are being used to help manage the career development of graduate students and postdocs associated with the award.
Resources for Developing IDPs
There is no single recommended IDP template for NBER graduate student research assistants and postdocs. Many universities have developed their own recommendations or requirements for IDPs and have resources available through their career development or professional development offices. One such example is the Graduate Programs & Services office at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. More broadly available resources available to aid in developing an IDP include:
APA’s Resource for Individual Development Plans
IDP for Humanities and Social Sciences - Imaginephd.com
Ongoing Mentoring and IDP Review
Creating and using an IDP should be an interactive process between a graduate student or postdoc and their mentor(s). The IDP is a living document and must be reviewed and updated at least annually.
For federally funded awards at NBER, the investigators will be asked to certify that they are complying with their funding agencies requirements for mentoring and IDP review at the time of annual or final report submission.
Resources for Mentors: