In July, 2013, NIH issued a notice (NOT-OD-13-093) to encourage institutions to develop IDPs for their graduate students and postdoctoral fellows.  Their rationale was “It is important to assist graduate students and postdoctoral researchers to achieve their career goals and become contributing members of the biomedical research workforce.”  In August, 2014, NIH issued a revised notice (NOT-OD-14-113), describing a process for monitoring compliance with this directive by PIs on research and other grants.