Are you a Postdoc (i.e. Research Associate, Postdoctoral Fellow) early in your time at MSU? Do you need access to opportunities that stimulate growth and development? Do you use an Individual Development Plan (IDP) to navigate your needs and goals for your career success? Are there shortfalls in financial support for you to travel to important conferences to present your work and network with potential employers and collaborators?
If the answer is yes to all of these questions, then you likely qualify for financial support from the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs. Topping the list of requests to our office is help to attend conferences. While our budget is not big enough to provide support for all Postdocs at the University, we would like to make a greater impact for the community. Rather than calling this a travel award that identifies vetted abstracts, this is a partnership between our Postdocs and the OPA, and an investment in training and skill building that will satisfy individual career goals. To hold our individual postdocs accountable to track their own development, we ask that you demonstrate how this travel will impact you in the following form.
One of the key elements of highlighting and tracking your progress in your professional development is the use of and IDP. If you have not been introduced to one already, we highly encourage you to select one (such as ImaginePhD, myIDP, ChemIDP or PHaSS-IDP) and start one today. For more information, check out this useful page on effective use of an IDP.
