The Research, Technology and Development (RTD) Evaluation Topical Interest Group (TIG) within the American Evaluation Association has as its mission to advance the field of performance measurement and in-depth assessment of programs, particularly publicly funded RTD programs.
We provide a forum for the exchange of ideas, good practice, and emerging tools by:
- organizing the RTD portion of the AEA conference each year
- collecting and disseminating information related to good practice, as well as events of interest, and gray literature
Announcements
EVALUATION 2019
Please download and share the call for proposals!
AEA Evaluation 2019: Paths to the Future of Evaluation: Contribution, Leadership, Renewal
Call for presentations, posters and papers – Deadline March 18th, 2019
The RT&D TIG invites you to submit a proposal to the AEA Annual Conference this year. To submit or to get more information, go to the Conference website. Select the RT&D TIG for review of your proposal as part of the submission process.
This year the AEA Conference will be held in Minneapolis, MN. The Conference will be held from Wednesday, November 13th through Saturday, November 16th, 2019. Professional development workshops will precede and follow.
We expect that the conference will attract a wide range of participants from a number of countries and that we can all share experiences and learn from one another. Last year, there were 20 sessions sponsored by the TIG, and we intend to provide opportunities for exchange throughout the conference and afterward. Mark the dates on your calendar, and even if you do not wish to submit a proposal, please plan to attend!
This year’s conference theme, Paths to the Future of Evaluation: Contribution, Leadership, and Renewal, considers evaluation’s relevance to the key issues of our society, to increase our society’s capacity to understand looming issues and tradeoffs, and to enable our communities to have informed conversations about the way forward. Although all topics will be considered, the RT&D TIG welcomes proposals that address these critical issues:
- Methods for Assessing Societal Benefits of R&D. How can we measure the value of research’s contribution to societal benefits, whether environmental quality, health security, or the importance of new knowledge itself? What new methods are being developed for assessing societal benefit at the project, program, or portfolio level?
- Evaluation for Decision-Making and Use, Especially in Contested RTD Spaces. RTD evaluations are intended to support decision-making by policy-makers and agency heads, often occurring in domains where the nature of scientific evidence itself may be questioned or contested. What strategies are evaluators using in these domains?
- Tapping New Sources of Evidence: Making More Efficient and Sophisticated Use of Administrative Data. How are RTD evaluators using internal administrative data to assess program effectiveness? What challenges are being encountered and how are they being overcome? What new tools and approaches are being developed?
Proposals are accepted for a variety of formats. Proposals from students and new R T&D evaluation professionals are especially welcome.
Note: You will need a login account to enter a proposal. If you do not want to join AEA right now, you can very easily create a non-member account entering just your name and email address
To see presentations from previous AEA Annual Conferences, please visit our public TIG Library,
RTD Topical Interest Group (TIG) Paper, February 2015
Evaluating Outcomes of Publicly Funded Research, Technology and Development Programs: Recommendations for Improving Current Practice (FINAL)
White paper SUMMARY slides
Generic Logic Models, collection over time