2025 Deadline
August 29, 2025
11:59 p.m. ET
Criteria and Judging
Nominated evaluations will be reviewed by a panel of expert judges external to EvaluATE. They will rate the evaluations on the following criteria:
- Overall usefulness, based on testimonials.
- Alignment between the evaluation and the project’s goals, objectives, and activities.
- Appropriateness of the indicators, data collection, and analysis.
- Alignment between the evaluation’s stated purpose and its conclusions.
- Clarity of the evaluation materials.
- Justification of the evaluation’s conclusions based on the evidence presented.
- Attention to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
- Visual design of the evaluation report.
- Consistency with professional evaluation tenets as expressed in the Guiding Principles for Evaluators and the Program Evaluation Standards.

Eligibility
- Evaluations of all project types funded by the NSF ATE program are eligible to apply for the Outstanding ATE Evaluation Award, including small, new-to-ATE projects; ATE centers; and other project types.
- Evaluations must reflect at least two full years of the project’s operations.
- The evaluated project must not be more than two years past its grant expiration date.
- Previous winners of the Outstanding ATE Evaluation Award are not eligible for nomination until four years after receiving the award.
* All ATE projects are eligible for this award, including those with personnel or evaluators currently or previously affiliated with EvaluATE. Award winners will be selected by judges external to EvaluATE.
Judging
Nominated evaluations will be reviewed by a panel of judges external to EvaluATE with expertise in evaluation.
Nominations Process
The nominations require (1) a short statement of why the nominated evaluation should be recognized as an outstanding example of ATE evaluation, (2) an electronic copy of an evaluation report, and (3) up to three 500-word testimonials from project staff or others about the evaluation’s value and utility. Nominations can be submitted by project staff, evaluation team members, program officers, or other with knowledge of the evaluation. Self-nominations are encouraged.
For more details about the nomination, see the PDF of the nomination form or go directly to the online nomination form.
All nominations must be submitted through the online form.