The concept of Convergence has taken hold in the United States as a central tenet for research aiming to address the world’s problems. In 2016, the US National Science Foundation (NSF) adopted Convergence as one of its 10 big ideas, creating two funding programs specifically named for this approach. A Convergence approach has also been adopted by NSF funded university research centers and networks. Large multi-year, multi-institute teams face a variety of challenges in coalescing as a team. The model of Convergence adopted by NSF depends on complex teams building new capacities for integration and team management for which most scientists have received no formal training and often lack necessary institutional resources. This increased prioritization of the need to span boundaries and integrate knowledge presents new opportunities for team science and raises questions regarding operationalizing and evaluating Convergence-in-practice. Panelists in this session will present pilot case perspectives on Convergence with a focus on planning for and evaluating Convergence in teaming, followed by respondent commentary highlighting areas for further discussion. The first pilot case perspective comes from broad efforts supporting the NSF Growing Convergence Research (GCR) program to build capacity toward creating a convergence culture. This presentation will report on the Toolbox Dialogue Initiative (TDI) Center’s dialogue-based work with the GCR awarded teams and ongoing research to identify convergence practices and processes through dialogue, interviews, and surveys, with attention to how convergence is operationalized by teams. The second pilot case perspective will describe a developmental evaluation approach that includes social network analysis, team readiness surveys, team observations and interviews. This approach provides real-time, or close to real-time, feedback to facilitate a continuous development loop. Assessments are used to select evidence-based team interventions to support teams as they advance through the phases of team development. Presentations will be followed by respondent commentary guided by the following themes and questions: Theme 1: The importance of mixed methods and values-explicit reasoning in evaluating Convergence efforts. Questions: How do we ‘show our work’ in coming to evaluative judgments about Convergence projects? What kinds of mixed methods and mixed method approaches would be apt? What values are driving Convergence projects? Theme 2: The challenge of fully envisioning convergence research outcomes, products and impacts at the outset of the work. Questions: What is unique about the products of convergence, and how do we recognize them? How do we set up evaluations that can successfully capture and elevate unforeseen outcomes?