 The American Evaluation Association is the largest professional association of evaluators in the world  MISSION: The American Evaluation Association’s mission is to improve evaluation practices and methods, increase evaluation use, promote evaluation as a profession, and support the contribution of evaluation to the generation of theory and knowledge about effective human action.  Over 7700 members from every state in the United States and over 60 foreign countries

 Annual Conference ◦ Hundreds of conference sessions ◦ Over 50 professional development workshops ◦ Next conference: Denver, October 15-18, 2014  Two journals: ◦ American Journal of Evaluation ◦ New Directions in Evaluation  Networking and Community ◦ TIGs, job bank, newsletters, professional development

 AEA has 49 TIGS  TIGs are subgroups of the association comprised of members with common interests. TIGs may be formed around methodologies such as Needs Assessment, around work contexts such as Government Evaluation, around salient concerns such as Feminist Issues, or around professional status such as Independent Consultants.  Each member can select up to five TIGs

 For conference: ◦ Primary vehicle for organizing and sponsoring conference sessions, through soliciting presentations and refereeing submitted proposals. ◦ Supporters of and contributors to the Presidential Strand. ◦ Providing cohesion to and a vehicle for a natural clustering of similar topics for the conference program.  General ◦ Provide a structure and conduit for sharing knowledge ◦ Increase awareness of current research ◦ Facilitate opportunities for collaborative research and evaluation ◦ AEA provides organizational support ◦ AEA provides website support

 The dissolution of the CTSA Consortium and the need for structures to sustain the Evaluation KFC efforts  Need for a professional context for CTSA evaluation  Need to connect with evaluators outside the CTSAs who are interested in translational research  AEA is a natural home for CTSA evaluators ◦ Since 2008 there have been approximately 56 paper presentations and 13 panels (each 3-5 papers) and 6 other presentations on translational research evaluation at AEA annual conference

 Early February, 2014 – group self-organizes  Mid February – March 12: TIG Proposal written  March 12: proposal submitted to AEA Board  March 20: AEA Board approval of new TIG  March 24: Official notification of approval  March – October: Pre-organizing activities  October (at AEA Conference): First TIG Business Meeting

 Angela Alexander, UCSD  Arthur E. Blank, Einstein and Montefiore  Gaurav Dave, UNC Chapel Hill  Deborah DiazGranados, VCU  Eileen M. Harwood, University of Minnesota  Janice A. Hogle, University of Wisconsin  Cathleen T. Kane, Weill Cornell  William M. Trochim, Weill Cornell  Donald B. Yarbrough, University of Iowa  The proposal had 33 signatories who expressed an interest in joining such a TIG

 Topics of interest to members: ◦ Strategies to evaluate translational research ◦ Effective practices of translational research process evaluation ◦ Use of process evaluation, especially process markers in evaluations of new translational research processes ◦ Translational research outcome monitoring, evaluation and use ◦ Techniques for measuring impacts of translational research initiatives ◦ Common metrics and measures of translational research ◦ Development of evaluation frameworks for translational research ◦ Designing and implementing evaluation plans for translational research ◦ Systems science approaches to evaluate translational research efforts ◦ Qualitative, quantitative and mixed methodologies for translational research

 Potential Projects ◦ Innovative Methods/Best Practices for Translational Research ◦ Translational Research Evaluation Strategies ◦ Definitions for Translational Research Evaluation ◦ Evaluation Policy in Translational Research ◦ Bibliometrics Assessment in Translational Research Evaluation ◦ Focus groups in Translational Research Evaluation ◦ Distribution of WHO evaluation elements as guidance for assessing and measuring value in Translational Research Evaluation

 Quarter 1 ◦ Host the 1 st TIG call and identify Collaborative Project Work Groups to develop projects in selected interest areas ◦ Identify a work group to develop the TIG call for proposals  Quarter 2 ◦ Receive reports from Collaborative Projects Work Groups and trouble shoot design and analytical problems (repeated quarterly). ◦ Conduct learning sessions on new methods through a web conferencing structure on topics like data visualization, social network analysis, bibliometrics, or team science. ◦ Review the TIG call for proposals

 Quarter 3: ◦ Updates from the Collaborative Project Work Groups ◦ Posting of the call for TIG proposals ◦ Identify members willing to review TIG proposals  Quarter 4: ◦ Review and selection of the TIG submissions. ◦ Updates from the Collaborative Project Work Groups  In addition, there will be: ◦ Outreach to other relevant TIGs ◦ Outreach to others interested in translational research evaluation

 TIG Business Meeting at annual conference in October  Preparation for Review Process (November – January) ◦ Develop criteria for reviews ◦ Form reviewer roster for conference proposals ◦ Elicit interest in special proposals on themes  AEA issues Call for Proposals (January)  AEA forwards proposals to TIGs (March)  TIG reviews proposals and makes recommendations to AEA (April – June)  Preparation for Conference (July-September)

 Leadership ◦ Inaugural Chair: William M. Trochim ◦ Program Chair: Arthur E. Blank  Governance Needs ◦ Determine mission/vision ◦ Determine structure - leadership, subgroups, projects) ◦ Determine processes – elections, meetings, electronic communications  We will explore how other TIGs organize

 Get the word out  Reach out beyond the CTSAs!  Get some volunteer self-organizing groups ◦ Membership – start recruiting  If you are already an AEA member, log onto and join the new TIG  If you aren’t an AEA member, consider joining ◦ Communications – start a website for basic information; develop materials about the TIG ◦ Programs or Projects ◦ Governance – start framing proposed rules for business meeting