Individual Research Plan (IRP)

Individual Research Plan (IRP) is one of the most essential documents submitted by PhD student during the education at Doctoral School. IRP is a description of research tasks planned for the realization in the course of education at the School, as well as the schedule of their implementation. IRP is reviewed during the mid-term evaluation and the assessment of the progress is made in relation to IRP, thus developing the IRP requires particular attention and consultation with supervisor(s).

Due to its particular importance, according to § 14, section 1 of the Regulations: a PhD student has 12 months from commencing education at Doctoral School for submitting the individual research plan.

What should you be aware of while developing IRP? The document should in particular:

  1.  include the subject of the dissertation (including research problem, argumentation for taking up the subject and current state-of-art) and planned research scope and methodology (including the scope and plan of works, research methods and expected results);
  2. specify the schedule of conducting the dissertation (i.e. milestones), including the estimated dates of:
    • a)   conducting necessary research;
    • b)   writing papers, in accordance with the requirements adopted by the Senate in the procedure of granting a PhD degree (no later than by the end of 6th semester);
    • c)  submitting the dissertation (no later than by the end of 8th semester).

A milestone is an essential part of the schedule, that summarizes specific set of tasks or a given phase of the project, without which further research is not possible. In particular, it is necessary to define the milestone determining the date of finishing the main part of the research within the dissertation.

According to § 14, section 6 of the Regulations: The mid-term evaluation committee shall verify the individual research plan and either accept it or request its modification, clarification or including additional information, no later than in 30 days from the start of 3rd semester.

The PhD student has 14 days from receiving the request from the committee to correct the IRP.

What if a PhD student fails to submit the IRP, its modification or does not get the IRP accepted by the committee? According to § 14, section 8 of the Regulations: It may be the grounds for removal of the PhD student from the list of PhD students as not meeting the obligations specified in Regulations, according to § 13, section 11, point 2.

A request to correct or modify the IRP by the committee is not the only moment when a PhD student can make changes in the IRP. According to § 14, section 9 of the Regulations: IRP can be changed at the request of a PhD student. The application should include justification and a positive opinion of
a supervisor or supervisors or a supervisor and assistant supervisor. Due to the procedure for reviewing and approving the IPB, an application for a change in the IPB may be submitted only in the first month of each semester of education, with the exception of justified cases, in particular when it results from the recommendation of the mid-term evaluation committee, extension of education or recommendations of the ministry for the participants of the ‘Implementation doctorate’ program.

Additional information for the participants of the ‘Implementation doctorate’ program

Due to the nature of the ‘Implementation Doctorate’ program, its participants should submit the accepted IRP earlier, so as to allow to include it in the yearly report submitted to the Ministry – we will inform you about the deadlines via e-mails in @pw.edu.pl domain.

The participants of the program should note that the IRP submitted to Doctoral School must correspond with the schedule included in the application to the Ministry. The experts who evaluate the yearly reports pay particular attention to the implementation of the scheduled tasks and refer in this context to IRP as well. The IRP should then include both – the description of scientific significance of research and application significance of the results.

According to the recommendations of the Ministry of Education and Science, the IRP template for the participants of the ‘Implementation doctorate’ program will be modified and published in the upcoming weeks.