What is an Individualized Development Plan (IDP)

The IDP is a tool for providing structure to mentors and mentees in their work together (Vincent et al., 2015). Developing IDPs requires that mentees think through their short and long-term career plans and formulate a path to enact the plans with support from their mentor.

IDPs provide a mechanism for supporting effective mentorship behaviors in a manner tailored and responsive to mentees’ career plans as well as their unique skills, interests, and values (Hobin et al., 2014). 

Examples of IDPs

• MyIDP: “a unique, web-based career-planning tool tailored to meet the needs of PhD students and postdocs in the sciences.”
• ChemIDP: A free career planning tool designed by the American Chemical Society for graduate students and postdoctoral scholars.
• ImaginePhD: a free online career exploration and planning tool for PhD students and postdoctoral scholars in the humanities and social sciences. 
• The Entering Research IDP for undergraduate students: The “Professional Development Plans” activity may be accessed for free once a profile is created.
• Other description of IDPs and examples.

What is a Mentoring Compact?

Communication of expectations may occur when a mentee and mentor(s) begin their relationship via a mentorship compact. This is a written agreement that provides a structure for mentors to outline expectations from, and commitments to, mentees, and vice versa. 

Compacts differ from an IDP, which focuses on short and long-term career plans, as they are focused on expectations for the working relationship on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.

More often than not, the explicit conversations between mentors and mentees about these expectations for the working alliance do not occur or only occur at the start of the relationship. There are often not external checks that expectations are reasonable. Mentorship compacts can prompt more structured and regular discussions of expectations, making expectations explicit.

Examples of Compact

• The Compact between Biomedical Graduate Students and Their Research Advisors: Prepared in collaboration with the AAMC Group on Graduate Research, Education, and Training (GREAT) and the AAMC Council of Faculty and Academic Societies (CFAS) in 2008, the compact was reviewed, revised, and updated in 2016.
• Mentoring compacts from Entering Research: Mentoring compacts for undergraduate and graduates students and their mentors are part of the Entering Research curriculum as part of the “Aligning Mentor & Trainee Expectations” activities, listed under the “Develop effective interpersonal communication skills.” (The materials can be accessed for free once a profile is created on the CIMER website.)
• The University of Wisconsin Institute for Clinical and Translational Research has a set of mentoring resources including a checklist of suggestions for what to cover in a mentoring compact. They also have ready-made examples for compacts between individuals, for teams, or for developing compacts based on key questions.

Compacts can also include campus information and resources (similar to a syllabus) and expectations for important non-research issues, such as ethics and mental health.