~AEA Public Library

AEA 2018 Multi-paper session
Chair: John F. Stevenson
Discussant:  William Trochim
Abstract:  When evaluators wish to influence complex, hierarchic, multi-organizational power structures, a collaborative approach can serve well but calls for some creative adaptations. The context for the work described in this session comprises two major NIH funding mechanisms intended to speed the movement of health research from the laboratory to realistic treatment settings and beyond to population health. Working with medical and academic institutions as they attempt to eliminate barriers and develop new support structures for clinical and translational research necessitates evaluation strategies that work in these multi-institutional contexts, respond to the perspectives of novice researchers and other stakeholders inside the complex systems, draw on those perspectives to provide formative guidance to project leadership, and accumulate compelling evidence of summative accomplishments. This session provides four case examples of creative evaluation strategies intended to speak necessary truths to the multi-layered powers that can facilitate or impede interdisciplinary, inter-institutional research collaborations.
Authors of papers:
1. Boney, Downey, & Lindsey
2. Estabrooks, Cramer, & Rohde
3. Fede, Hayward, Kogut, Stevenson, & Willey
4. Paranal & Harvey