The vast majority of United States Federal government evaluations are conducted by contractors, but effective contracting is rarely examined. Our panel of government evaluators, contractors, and academics addressed questions related to evaluation contracting and how it can be done more effectively. 1. Name one legal and/or regulatory obstacle that can affect the quality of contracted evaluations. Potential solutions? 2. Do Requests for Expressions of Interest and question and answer processes improve the quality of evaluation Requests for Proposals (RFPs)? 3. How do government estimates of level of effort (or lack thereof) and time frames influence evaluation budgets and the conduct of evaluations? 4. How do contractors decide to bid or not? Do certain practices discourage bidding? 5. What are the pros and cons of performance-based contracting? Is it possible or desirable for contracting evaluation services? #GovernmentEvaluation #evaluationcontracting #2014Conference