About us
Knowledge Economy Forum (KEF) is a professional NGO in Vilnius, Lithuania with more than 50 members representing research, innovation and education areas. Knowledge Economy Forum brings together politicians, representatives from universities, other NGOs, and high-tech industry members to act as a think-tank/debate platform for the country’s societal and economic progress in the areas of a knowledge society, innovation and education.
The main fields of KEF activities are education, technology assessment, improving public governance, entrepreneurship, and innovation. In education, KEF mainly works with the following topics: media literacy, STEAM, innovation in education, school improvement, teacher training and continuous professional development.
KEF has excellent regional cooperation with school authorities, Lithuanian School Headmaster Association, Lithuanian Pupil Union, and the most innovative teachers in Lithuania. Moreover, KEF has a strong relationship with universities – we’re now advising two out of three – Vilnius University, Vilnius Gediminas technical university, Kaunas University of Technology, Mykolas Romeris University, Vilnius University of Applied Sciences, and helping Lithuania’s Lithuanian Ministry of Education, Science and Sports reform teacher education.
An excellent track record on international and national projects ranging from education to technology assessment establishes us as reliable national government and international collaboration partners.
We are open to new innitiatives and collaborations.
Our work in education includes topics of media information literacy, STEAM, school management, innovative education, school improvement, modern teacher training and continuous professional development. Below are projects on education that we took part in:
The Most Innovative Lithuanian Teacher Awards, an initiative of KEF, aim to promote innovative methods, allow teachers to share their best practices and highlight the excellent teachers of Lithuania. Lithuania’s PM supports these awards.
As a long-time partner of DW Akademie, KEF promotes MIL in Lithuania by publishing newsletters, training teachers, organising relevant events and generating teaching material. One of those events, is the Baltic MIL Summit – an international conference on media and information literacy, networking and information exchange in the Baltic States. The conference takes place every two years in a different Baltic capital.
- MILbox (2022-2024)
The MILbox project aims to create a toolbox with a twofold purpose: digital education engagement (including pedagogical material for teachers, best practices, etc. and also basic content for data privacy, effective communication with students, etc.) and media and information literacy (including online, offline and mixed material tailored to specific age group and their needs, integration with other subject guidance, ready syllabi for lessons, etc.) parts.
D-TIPS (Design thinking in primary schools) aims to help teachers achieve that. D-TIPS hopes to make design thinking activities in your classroom easy and effective by designing tools and methods specifically for primary school teachers and providing training.
The InternACTional project focused on creating a cross-institutional, international, practice-based, interdisciplinary and student-centred interactive learning course with elements of virtual exchange for tackling sustainability challenges.
Innovation Race (2021-2022), as part of the InternACTional project, was an event that took place twice and focused on reinventing universities for a sustainable future.
- GaMEdia (2018)
This project entailed developing an educational game and support material for teachers on media and information literacy topics.
KEF’s activities included developing an e-learning platform to help consumers increase their energy consumption awareness and efficiency.
KEF acted as a coordinator of this project, the purpose of which is to implement STEAM education in schools systematically. Three intellectual outputs were developed: STEAM methodology, implementation guidelines, best practices and open educational resources. The STEAM methodology includes a framework for STEAM education, analysing modern technologies and emerging trends, and self-checking tools for implementation. STEAM implementation guidelines provide practical guidance for school-business-NGO partnerships and integrate different subjects.
- ”Improving the quality of education through innovation“
Implementation of the project ”Improving the quality of education through innovation“ and running a Lithuanian education innovation platform.
Our work in technology assessment included expanding the network of technology assessment institutions and establishing Lithuania’s capacity in new countries; seeking to engage citizens in redefining the European Research and Innovation agenda and thereby making it relevant and accountable to society; publishing regular policy briefs for Lithuanian parliamentarians and other policymakers on various technology assessment (TA) issues. Below are projects on TA that we participated in:
The project aims to enhance and expand the European capacity on evidence-based policy-making and to support policy-making based on or using science and research, to encourage public engagement in science and two-way communication between scientists and other stakeholders and to include the aspects of ethics in science.
Participation in project CIMULACT, „Citizen and Multi-Actor Consultation on Horizon2020“. The project seeks to engage citizens and other actors in redefining the European Research and Innovation agenda, making it relevant and accountable to society.
- ”For Future Creators“
Regularly publishing policy briefs ”For Future Creators“ for Lithuanian parliamentarians and other policymakers on TA issues.
Our work with innovation systems included promoting innovation in various sectors and strategising for innovation strategy development mechanisms, which would enable us to build Lithuania as one of the most innovative regions in Europe. Below are our examples of such activities:
- The Knowledge Economy Awards (2004-2017)
Starting in 2004, KEF, in cooperation with the President of Lithuania, organised the annual Knowledge Economy Awards, where awards were presented to the most meritorious knowledge-intensive companies.
The overall goal of RIS Lithuania was to elaborate innovation strategy development mechanisms, which enabled to build Lithuania as one of the most innovative regions in Europe. Specific objectives of the project were to develop a competitive innovation strategy for Lithuania as a key element of EU Structural Funds programmes; to establish a sustainable, national partnership on innovation; to stimulate the development of innovation support infrastructure; to increase the quality of innovation in Lithuania by establishing mechanisms for sustainable cooperation with other European countries.
- The evaluation of the Lithuanian Science and Technology Parks system – proposed measures and recommendations for developing the Lithuanian Science and Technology Parks system.
Our work in improving public governance included evaluating the state of Lithuania’s governance and proposing a strategy for future improvement. Below are examples of such activities:
KEF co-authored a study published in 2009. The study attempts to theoretically and practically cover all problems of e-government. The research on the development of e-government, the evaluations of the strategic development model, and the proposals presented in the monograph are particularly important for the future of Lithuania. The study evaluates the general development of Lithuanian e-government and, by applying theoretical criteria and structural parameters, discusses the relationship of e-government with social development and substantiates the necessity of foresight and the evaluation of European and global experience while improving the development of e-government.
Preparation of Lithuania 2030 progress vision and National Program of Progress. Lithuania’s Progress Strategy “Lithuania 2030” reflects a national vision and priorities for development and guidelines for their implementation by 2030. This is a roadmap for decision-making and drawing up national plans or programmes.
KEF aided in the creation of “Lithuania 2050” – Lithuania’s vision for the future. “Lithuania 2050” is a vision for the future of the country, a document with a 20+ year perspective, where experts, citizens and other co-creators co-create a vision for Lithuania’s future, the strategic ambitions needed to achieve it, and the indicators of impact that show the desired changes in the country’s socio-economic and environmental condition.
- Conducting training for state employees
- A feasibility study conducted for Vilnius University Students’ Representation of social business models Analysis and Perspectives
- AdVenture, Inostartas, InoLaboratorija
The main activity of these three projects was mentoring bachelor, master, PhD students and young scientists on entrepreneurship issues, preparing them for participation in business accelerator programs, and establishing start-up companies.
- Research project on “Creative Partnerships” impact on solving educational issues and transformational artists’ potential.
The feasibility study was commissioned by the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania Library as part of a project to modernise the national cultural education system, which is being carried out jointly with the Ministries of Culture and Education, Science and Sport. KEF prepared the feasibility study.
