Frequently Asked Questions
What does the case challenge involve?
- Cross-disciplinary engagement to arrive at creative solutions
- Current students (senior undergraduate, graduate, or professional) and early-career professionals (graduated within the past 5 years) from any disciplinary concentration are invited to take part in the case challenge if they reside in Canada or the US most of the year and will have completed one introductory course (formal academic or professional development) in evaluation before January 2027.
- Once selected, participants are assigned to an interdisciplinary team that they will work with in January-April 2027. We typically accept 20 individuals.
- Training from leading experts on evaluation capacity building
- From January-April 2027, participants have the opportunity to learn about evaluation capacity building (ECB) and related topics with leading experts in the field. These online sessions focus on delivering foundational material and insights on topics relevant to the forthcoming case.
- Each team is assigned a coach to provide them with tailored assistance as they hone their skills to prepare for the case challenge.
- Collaborative application of knowledge to a real case
- One case site organization is selected to participate in EC³ each year. On the first day of the challenge, information about the case site organization, its current evaluation capacity, and the specific challenge the organization would like the teams to develop a plan to address are presented. Over 24 hours, the teams work to develop a strategy that is innovative, yet feasible, for the organization to consider.
- On the second day of the challenge, participating teams deliver a presentation describing this strategy to a panel of esteemed judges. The presentation is followed by a Q&A session with the judges. If desired, teams may submit additional materials to accompany their presentation.
Note:
- Participants who participated on an EC³ team in the past are not eligible to apply. However, if you previously applied and were not selected, you may apply for consideration again.
Students/early-career professionals apply individually and are then assigned to teams; they do not apply as pre-formed teams.
Is there a fee for participating?
- No, the generous support from our donor, Dr. Sydney Duder and her family, the Evaluation Capacity Network, and the University of Ottawa's Center for Research on Education and Community Services make has this possible.
- The Max Bell School of Public Policy covers the costs for accommodations (April 29-May 2, 2027) for individuals selected to participate. Participants will be responsible for paying their own travel to and from the event as well as some meals and incidentals.
How much time do I need to set aside for this if I'm selected?
- Though the case challenge event takes place over the course of two days, participants engage in several online training sessions in advance and regularly meet with their assigned teams, coaches, and mentors between January and late April 2027. To get the most out of the challenge and ensure your team is adequately prepared to put forth their best proposal, it is good to make sure you have roughly 4-6 hours per month available during this time.
I do not reside in Canada or the US most of the year, so I am not eligible to apply, but really want to. What are my next steps?
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Currently EC³ is limited to participants who reside in Canada or the US most of the year. This is in part due to logistical concerns related to time zones and scheduling as well as budgetary limitations to enable participation in person.
- Additionally, the work we draw upon in the case challenge stems from peer reviewed literature that most often includes examples of organizational evaluation capacity building (ECB) and theory on ECB from the U.S., Australia, and Canada (Bourgeois et al., 2023) as well as the coaches’ ECB practice (which tends to focus on cases in Canada and the U.S.). Though there may be several similarities in what constitutes high-quality evaluation practice and effective ECB approaches between Canada and the U.S. and other regions of the world, we do not want to assume that is the case.
- Given prior interest in EC³ from individuals who reside outside of Canada and the U.S., our hope is that we can find partners in other regions of the world who are interested in developing region-specific evaluation capacity case challenges and we are currently in the midst of engaging with some regions for early discussions. We would happily share our lessons learned from the past several years designing and implementing EC³ and work with new host sites to launch region-specific EC³s. Should you have an interest or know of contacts who might be interested in discussing this possibility, please email Leslie.Fierro [at] mcgill.ca.
What does the winning team…win?
- Each member of the winning team receives $1,000 CAD. Our hope is that team members will use their award to support their registration and travel expenses to attend an evaluation conference (e.g., the American Evaluation Association's (AEA) Annual Conference, the Canadian Evaluation Society's (CES) Annual Conference, European Evaluation Society, African Evaluation Association, or other) or to pursue further education in evaluation. One or more representatives of the winning team may be asked to present their work at an upcoming evaluation conference.
Considering applying, but just aren’t sure yet?
On October 21, 2026 from 3-4:30PM ET we will host an online information session – to share about the experience of engaging in EC³ over the past four years. During this session, we will take your questions and share highlights from individuals’ experiences participating in the case challenge. If you are interested in joining this online information session please register by clicking on the button below.
