ASOCIACIJA ZINIU EKONOMIXOS FORUMAS

Their core work

The Knowledge Economy Forum (KEF) is a Lithuanian NGO operating at the intersection of civil society participation, research policy, and energy consumer engagement. Their name translates directly as "Knowledge Economy Forum," signaling a mission to connect public audiences with knowledge-driven policy and innovation. In H2020 they contributed to large-scale citizen and multi-actor consultation exercises on EU research priorities, and then to programs aimed at changing household and community energy consumption behavior. They act as a civil society bridge — bringing Lithuanian and broader Eastern European voices into pan-European research consortia that need genuine public engagement expertise, not just tokenistic dissemination.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In their first project (2015–2018) KEF worked on broad democratic input into EU science policy — essentially asking citizens what research Europe should fund. By their second project (2018–2021) that public engagement capability had been redirected toward a specific sectoral problem: changing how ordinary people think about and use energy. The trajectory is a narrowing from meta-level research governance toward applied behavioral change in the energy sector. No keyword data exists to confirm further evolution, so the shift is inferred from project titles and sector tags alone.

KEF appears to be moving from generic public engagement methodology toward energy-sector-specific audience work, which positions them as a civil society partner for energy transition projects requiring community outreach or consumer behavior components.

How they like to work

KEF has never coordinated an H2020 project — both participations are as a consortium partner. Despite only two projects, they have accumulated 31 unique consortium partners across 27 countries, indicating they are recruited into large, geographically diverse international consortia rather than tight bilateral partnerships. This pattern is typical of NGOs that are brought in to satisfy civil society engagement requirements and geographic diversity criteria in CSA-type projects.

With 31 consortium partners spread across 27 countries from just two projects, KEF's network is remarkably wide relative to its project volume. This European-scale reach reflects the pan-European nature of both CIMULACT and ECO2, rather than a hub-and-spoke model built around repeated Lithuanian partnerships.

What sets them apart

KEF occupies a rare niche as a Lithuanian civil society organization with demonstrated capacity to participate in large, multi-country EU coordination projects — a profile that consortium builders need when projects require non-academic, non-industry partners to legitimize public engagement components. For energy transition or research policy projects seeking Eastern European NGO representation, KEF offers both the organizational type and the track record. Their small size and low total funding also mean they are a lightweight, low-overhead partner rather than a resource-intensive one.

Highlights from their portfolio

• CIMULACT
  A flagship pan-European citizen consultation on the Horizon 2020 agenda — involving multiple countries and actor types — making it one of the more methodologically ambitious public engagement exercises in EU research policy of that period.
• ECO2
  KEF's largest single grant (EUR 87,798) and the project that anchors their energy sector credentials, focused on shifting consumer behavior rather than technical energy solutions.