Date: Saturday, June 20, 2026
This week is sponsored by our colleagues in the Research, Technology, and Development Evaluation (RTD) TIG. The contributions this week are evergreen posts contributed by RTD TIG members about topics so important, they’re worth a second read.
-Liz DiLuzio, Lead Curator
We are Robin Wagner and Josh Schnell, and we have been leading the Research, Technology and Development (RTD) Evaluation since 2014(Robin), and 2016 (Josh).
As RTD Evaluation TIG Week comes to a close, we’ve spent the past several days exploring ideas, methods, and experiences from across the research evaluation community. We’ve read about asking better questions, designing effective assessment systems, building learning infrastructures, understanding research portfolios, and rethinking how we define impact.
Those topics are important. But they all depend on something even more important: people.
One of the greatest strengths of the American Evaluation Association has always been its ability to bring people together. For many of us, the Annual Meeting has been where we discovered new ideas, met future collaborators, found mentors, and built lasting professional relationships. It has been the place where evaluators working in different sectors and disciplines could gather around shared interests and learn from one another.
As the Annual Meeting evolves, it is natural to think about what helps maintain those connections throughout the year. For us, that is where the RTD Evaluation TIG comes in.
The RTD Evaluation TIG brings together people who are interested in understanding how research systems work and how evaluation can help improve them. Our members come from consulting organizations, foundations, universities, government agencies, and nonprofit organizations. Some are seasoned leaders in the field. Others are just beginning their careers. What connects us is a shared curiosity about research, evidence, learning, and impact.
In many ways, a TIG provides something that a conference alone cannot: continuity. The conversations do not begin and end during a few days each year. Within the RTD Evaluation TIG, we actively engage with members both from the US and the international evaluation community, to connect, learn, and share throughout the year. This includes webinars featuring members’ work, and opportunities to connect evaluators across sectors and disciplines. Our goal is to create a space where conversations about research evaluation continue long after the Annual Meeting concludes.
That sense of community matters.
Research evaluation is inherently interdisciplinary. Few of us work in environments where all of our colleagues share the same interests in research funding, portfolio analysis, bibliometrics, innovation systems, scientific impact, or research policy. TIGs help bridge that gap by connecting people who might otherwise never meet but have much to learn from one another.
Strong communities are built through participation. Every webinar attendee, presenter, committee member, blog author, and discussion participant helps strengthen the community. Many of the activities that RTD Evaluation TIG offers are member-driven, which means new ideas and new volunteers are always welcome.
As co-leaders of RTD Evaluation TIG, we are excited about the opportunities ahead. We want to continue creating spaces where members can learn from one another, discover new approaches, build collaborations, and contribute to the future of research evaluation. But the success of the TIG ultimately depends on the engagement of its members.
So as RTD Evaluation TIG Week concludes, we invite you to become part of the conversation. Join one of our webinars, contribute an idea for a future event, share a resource with the community, present your work, or simply reach out to a fellow member. RTD TIG is strongest when members see it not only as a professional network, but as a community they help create.
The future of our profession will not be shaped solely by the methods we use or the evaluations we conduct. It will also be shaped by the communities we build. We hope the RTD Evaluation TIG will continue to be one of those communities for years to come.
The American Evaluation Association is celebrating RTD TIG Week with our colleagues in the Research Technology and Development TIG. All of the blog contributions this week come from our RTD TIG members. Do you have questions, concerns, kudos, or content to extend this aea365 contribution? Please add them in the comments section for this post on the aea365 webpage so that we may enrich our community of practice. Would you like to submit an aea365 Tip? Please send a note of interest to aea365@eval.org. aea365 is sponsored by the American Evaluation Association and provides a Tip-a-Day by and for evaluators.