Effective October 1, 2014, UW–Madison requires Individual Development Plans (IDPs) for all National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded graduate students and postdoctoral researchers. This policy was endorsed by the Research Policy Advisory Committee (RPAC) and signed by Martin Cadwallader and Dan Uhlrich on July 1, 2014. Read the document here.

This policy coincided with the NIH notice which encourages PIs to report on the utilization of IDPs in section B4 of the Research Performance Progress Report (RPPR). Read the NIH notice here and the revision here.

Additionally, regardless of funding source, UW–Madison recommends utilizing IDPs for all graduate students and postdoctoral researchers regardless of funding type as this engages individuals in articulating their research goals and interests, career planning, and professional development needs.

To support this new policy, UW–Madison developed a collection of resources to help graduate students and postdoctoral researchers develop their IDPs, and to help PIs meet the NIH requirement. These resources include IDP forms, guidelines, and workshops, as well as an institution-wide IDP reporting system where mentees/mentors report IDP activity.

More information about these resources can be found on the university's IDP webpage: https://grad.wisc.edu/professional-development/individual-development-plan/.