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Individual Development Plan (IDP)

An Individual development Plan (IDP) is a tool to help graduate students assess and plan around their goals and needs. These include the student’s skills, interests, and strengths; and developing their research, academic, and career goals. The IDP is used to communicate about these evolving goals and skills with the faculty adviser during mentorship conversations.

The UW Graduate School has prepared an IDP Template that can be modified based on student preference. Students are encouraged to read the instruments/information on the first page and follow the AAAS link on the template for more science-oriented examples.

All graduate students are encouraged to employ the IDP at least annually at one of their regular meetings with their faculty adviser. Graduate students entering the program in autumn 2020 or later are required to use IDPs at the following times:

• End of autumn quarter in the first year of the program
• The quarter following acceptance into the PhD program

IDPs are not connected to evaluation towards degree progress and will not be stored in the student’s academic file. However, students are required to notify the Graduate Program Adviser (GPA) about completion of the IDP and associated discussion thereof with their adviser at the above times, copying their faculty adviser, as record of completion.

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Directory Topic: Individual Development Plans (IDPs)

Office of postdoctoral affairs.

The Graduate School sponsors the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs, which is here to help you navigate life at the UW as a postdoctoral fellow.

Bill Mahoney , Associate dean of student & postdoc affairs

Additional support

To enrich the postdoc mentoring experience at UW, OPA offers Office Hours for Postdocs. We have a designated faculty member to provide one-on-one mentoring to all UW postdocs.

• Read more about the OPA and how to request an Office Hours appointment

Location and contact

305 Loew Hall ( map → ) [email protected]

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Individual Development Plan (IDP) Overview and Resources

Basic information and resource links.

Effective October 1, 2014, NIH is requiring that all grant progress reports discuss IDPs for those grants that fund students and postdocs.  IDP guidance from the UW Graduate School   UW Graduate School's guidance on creating an IDP Includes:

• How to conceptualize the process
• A template for goal setting

New NIH requirements for reporting Individual development plans   SPH memo that describes the new NIH requirement. This memo includes info about new Trainee Senior Fellow offer letters that references IDPs.  UAB personal development plan for postdocs  

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Individual Development Plan

Your work as a postdoctoral researcher is meant to train and prepare you for an independent career. Defined goals, clear expectations, and good communications with your faculty mentor are important in making the most of this time.

The Individual Development Plan (IDP) process is designed to help you develop goals, set expectations, and ensure communication with your mentor. It’s an annual process beginning with a self-assessment guided by an IDP form, a discussion of goals and objectives with your mentor, and a formulation of an action plan for the year ahead.

The IDP in use at UW Astronomy has been adapted from the processes used at Stanford and those recommended centrally at UW . To find out more about IDPs in general, we recommend you take a look at the excellent website of Stanford’s Office of Postdoctoral Affairs .

New postdocs

• Read the Initial IDP Form soon after you arrive. Take some time to think about the questions and formulate your goals.
• Within first three months of arrival, meet with your mentor to discuss the IDP. Ideally, share the IDP form with them well ahead of the meeting. Jointly formulate the action plan for next year.
• Report the date of your meeting by e-mailing office — at — astro.washington.edu and CC-ing your faculty mentor. Only the date of the meeting needs to be reported; both your IDP form and the content of your conversation with your faculty mentor are private.
• Refer to the action plan throughout the year, revisit it with your mentor as necessary.

Returning postdocs

• Fill our the Annual IDP Form at the beginning of the autumn quarter.
• No later than the end of October, meet with your mentor to discuss the IDP. Ideally, share the IDP form with them well ahead of the meeting. Jointly formulate the action plan for next year.

IMPORTANT: these are links to Google Drive. You have to be logged in with your UW account to access them.

• Initial IDP Form
• Annual IDP Form

Frequently Asked Questions

• Both your IDP form and the content of your conversation with your faculty mentor are private. Beyond a confirmation that the IDP meeting took place, the form is not reported or shared with others (unless required by overriding regulations — e.g. Faculty are required to report instances sexual misconduct or potential sexual misconduct).
• The IDP is there to facilitate postdoc-advisor communication and define the plan of action going forward. The activity report is a list of quantitative accomplishments over the past year.
• The AARs are used to document salary increase requests.
• Not directly. The IDP process does end with an agreed-upon activity plan for the next year, which will set the mentor’s expectations. But such expectations already exists, just on an informal basis (and can sometimes be very unclear). The IDP will make them explicit and easier to understand.
• Most likely, a discussion with your advisor on what went wrong, and incorporation of lessons learned into the plan for next year. Progress in research is almost never linear (it’s research!).

Related Documents

• Presentation on the IDP process
• Postdoctoral Mentoring Policy
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