Tuesday 23rd June 2026, 10:00 – 12:00 & 14:00 – 16:00 BST, Online (via Zoom)
You are warmly invited to attend CECAN’s annual conference, ‘Global perspectives on Complex Evaluation’ on Tuesday 23rd June 2026.
This year, we are looking beyond the UK to explore how policy evaluation is evolving internationally. We’ll bring together leading voices from the US and Europe to compare and contrast how different regions navigate the challenges of evaluating public policy in a complex world.
Our 2026 conference features a series of live, interview-style conversations with international experts (see biographies below). These interviews will explore how high-quality evaluation is being embedded into the heart of different governments, the current trends and innovations in their respective regions, and how the policy process is adapting to modern pressures. Each interview will be followed by an open, interactive Q&A session.
The conference will be of value for all those involved in policy development, delivery and evaluation.
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Programme:
Morning (10:00 – 12:00 BST):
10:00 – 10:15 | Welcome
10:15 – 11:00 | In Conversation with Peter van der Knaap, Director of the Policy and Operations Evaluation Department (IOB), The Hague; President of the European Evaluation Society (EES)
11:00 – 11:15 | Break
11:15 – 12:00 | In Conversation with May Pettigrew, Recent Past President, European Evaluation Society (EES)
Afternoon (14:00 – 16:00 BST):
14:00 – 14:45 | In Conversation with Bianca Montrosse-Moorhead, Professor, University of Connecticut
14:45 – 15:00 | Break
15:00 – 15:45 | In Conversation with Emily Gates, Associate Professor of Evaluation, Boston College
15:45 – 16:00 | Summary & Close – Prof. Nigel Gilbert
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Please note, this event is free but places are limited, so registration is required. Places will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.
CLICK HERE to register for a place
If you have any questions, please contact CECAN by emailing cecan@surrey.ac.uk
Speaker Biographies:
Peter van der Knaap
Director of IOB-evaluation, The Hague; President of EES
Dr. P. (Peter) van der Knaap is Director of IOB, the independent Evaluation Directorate of the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs and President of the European Evaluation Society (EES). Van der Knaap is also a co-chair of OECD-DAC’s EvalNet.
Prior to his work for IOB, Van der Knaap was Director of SWOV Road Safety Research Institute, Director of Performance Audit of the Netherlands Court of Audit, and Head of Evaluation Research with the Netherlands Ministry of Finance. He worked at Erasmus University Rotterdam where he earned his PhD with an analysis of the impact of policy evaluation on European Union structural policy.
His lifelong fascination with evaluation and public policy has led to countless articles and books, on evaluation in general (in Dutch) and on positive evaluation (in English). Peter was President of the Dutch Evaluation Society Vide from 2016 until 2022 and is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of ‘Evaluation’. He lives and works close to the beach in The Hague with his wife and family (and a shed full of kiteboarding gear).
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May Pettigrew
Recent Past President, European Evaluation Society (EES)
May Pettigrew completed her two year term as President of EES in December 2025, leading the Society’s strategic directions and operations and was Co-Coordinator of EES 2018, 2022 and 2024 conferences. She is an independent evaluation specialist with over 25 years experience across the full spectrum of ex-ante, ex-post, impact, strategy and policy evaluation, evaluation capacity building and quality assurance across education, vocational training, social policy, information technology and fragile contexts. May has held senior evaluation posts at the European Commission and UNESCO. She has undertaken Masters and Doctoral studies under Professor Barry MacDonald, University of East Anglia.
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Bianca Montrosse-Moorhead
Professor, University of Connecticut
Bianca Montrosse-Moorhead, PhD, is a professor of research methods, measurement, and evaluation in the Neag School of Education at the University of Connecticut, USA. She specializes in evaluation methodology, theory, practice, and capacity building, with research focused on evaluation quality, evaluator education, and applied studies of educational interventions and policies. Her scholarship appears in the American Journal of Evaluation, Evaluation, and other leading outlets. Since 2023, she has served as Co-Editor-in-Chief of New Directions for Evaluation. She previously chaired EvalYouth (2015–2019) and served as Vice Chair of the International Society for Evaluation Education (2018–2021), receiving the 2021 EvalYouth Award. She has led evaluation projects of varying size and complexity, securing over $19 million in external projects as PI or co-PI. She has also delivered workshops for the United Nations, the European Evaluation Society, the African Evaluation Association, the Australian Evaluation Society, and other global organizations.
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Emily Gates
Associate Professor of Evaluation, Boston College
Emily Gates is an associate professor at Boston College whose research examines how evaluation can support meaningful, values‑driven change in complex systems. Her work bridges theory and practice, with more than 30 publications and two coauthored books: Evaluative Inquiry for Systemic Change (2025, with Pablo Vidueira) and Evaluating and Valuing in Social Research (2021, with Thomas Schwandt). She received the American Evaluation Association’s 2023 Marcia Guttentag Promising New Evaluator Award for her contributions to systems thinking, values, and equity in evaluation. Since 2012, she has worked primarily in the public sector, focusing on mixed methods and democratic evaluations in STEM education and public health. She lives in Boston with her family.
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