Your occasional update on our network, upcoming events, professional development and the world of impact evaluation
Dear IEPN members,
It was a pleasure to meet some of you at the Australian Evaluation Society conference in September. As we approach the end of the year, we would like to thank you for your contribution to the network in 2025. We have ambitious plans for next year including an online IEPN conference. If you would like to join the organising committee, read on.
Since the last newsletter, we have hosted 3 more seminars. In September, the team from the right@home trial showed what can be done with long‑term collection of outcomes data from a randomised trial. The following month, the trials team at the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations demonstrated how administrative data can be used to improve a randomised trial. Last week, Noam Angrist and Claire Cullen presented an impactful use of A/B testing in global education. You can find recordings of all our seminars in the IEPN Teams group.
We wish you all a relaxing and happy holiday season. See you next year for more impactful conversations about impact evaluation.
Sincerely,
The IEPN Secretariat
Network update
2025 by the numbers
2025 was the first full year of operation for the IEPN. Thanks to all our members, the network is thriving. Here are a few numbers that sum up the year.
- This year, more than 150 members joined the network, brining our total membership to 463.
- 104 members have joined the Collaboration Platform (our Teams group).
- The IEPN hosted 6 seminars and sent 4 newsletters this year.
- Our largest seminar was the most recent event with Noam Angrist and Claire Cullen. 165 people joined the session.
While there’s no control group to give us a counterfactual‑based estimate of our impact, we think that’s pretty good!
New opportunities to contribute to the network
As the network grows there is more work to do. We have two opportunities for keen members to get involved in 2026.
Join the secretariat
The IEPN is run by a volunteer secretariat and we are seeking 1–2 people to join. The secretariat organises seminars and social events, prepares the newsletter and handles network admin. We are looking for people who love impact evaluation and can contribute about 5 hours each month.
To express your interest please email campbell.mcnolty@treasury.gov.au and tell us why you are interested and what skills you could bring to the role. Please get in touch by Wednesday 17 December 2025.
Help to organise the first IEPN conference
Next year we will run our first IEPN conference. The event will be held online, possibly with in‑person social gatherings in capital cities. The secretariat is establishing an organising committee, which will include some secretariat members and will report back to the secretariat regularly. We need people with a broad range of skills including project management, communications, stakeholder management and, of course, event planning.
If you would like to work with fellow impact evaluators to bring Australia’s first dedicated impact evaluation conference to life, send us your expression of interest. Just email campbell.mcnolty@treasury.gov.au and tell us why you are interested and what skills you could bring to the role. Please get in touch by Wednesday 17 December 2025.
Members Collaboration Platform
The IEPN members platform is live on Microsoft Teams. If you have not joined yet, reach out to Tony (tony.bertoia@edresearch.edu.au) with the following details to be added.
| Prefix | FirstName | LastName | Job Title | Organisation | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
The group will allow you to:
- Chat directly to other IEPN members.
- Share ideas, post notices and ask questions. You can reach the whole network or join dedicated channels for side‑discussions and special‑interest sub‑groups.
- Access a SharePoint folder via the Teams app or web browser. This is where we are uploading recordings of past seminars.
- Collaborate with other group members in files within the SharePoint folder structure.
If you have any questions, please reach out to Tony Bertoia on tony.bertoia@edresearch.edu.au
Now live: The IEPN members directory
The IEPN members directory is live within the members collaboration platform on Microsoft Teams. The directory is designed to help members connect, share expertise, and collaborate. Participation is voluntary, and the directory is only accessible to network members.
Enter your details to the IEPN members directory.
Training and professional development
Microlearning video series to build capability in the use of AI tools for evaluation in the Australian Government
The Australian Centre for Evaluation (the ACE) has just launched its microlearning video series, 'Using Artificial Intelligence tools to support Evaluation in the Australian Government' to support evaluators and APS officers in their AI journey. This resource supports the safe and ethical use of AI tools for evaluation in the Australian Government.
The videos and guidance are now available on the ACE website. They will also be hosted on the APSC’s APSLearn platform from the end of November.
The ACE developed these videos and accompanying guidance in collaboration with its partners across the Australian Government. This initiative was funded by the Australian Public Service Commission’s (APSC) through their Capability Reinvestment Fund (round 2).
If you would like to know more, please contact us at evaluation@treasury.gov.au
Reading and links
If you find this reading list interesting or you would like to submit something for the next edition, please contact us at evaluation@treasury.gov.au.
Impactful A/B testing: At this month’s seminar, Claire Cullen and Noam Angrist presented a brilliant example of A/B testing. They rapidly tested a series of improvements to a tutoring program and improved program effectiveness while reducing cost. The paper highlights the way small, randomised trials can support the scale up of impactful programs.
The gap between policy and practice: In the same seminar, Noam Angrist also presented some of the findings from his paper with Stefan Dercon. The paper analyses the gap between policy intent and policy in practice. It demonstrates the importance of implementation science when scaling up impactful programs. The paper is behind a paywall, but there is a working paper [PDF 2.1 MB] available from the What Works Hub for Global Education.
Future directions for causal inference: In this working paper, the authors discuss the current state of causal inference work and outline a research agenda for the future. They highlight interesting open questions that will help any practitioner to understand the limits of our knowledge.
Researcher degrees of freedom: Kathleen Beegle gives a short reflection on a new NBER working paper. The paper shows that researchers’ choices affect their findings. Even when different research teams are provided with the same data and the same research design, they can find very different results.
School phone bans and student achievement: This thorough, quasi‑experimental study from the US finds that removing phones from schools improves student results. However, the effects take a year to show up in the data.