Against the Current: Knowledge Brokerage in the Science-For-Policy Ecosystem of Lithuania

This article examines how knowledge brokerage roles reconfigure in science-for-policy ecosystems where demand for scientific evidence is structurally weak, and what enables or constrains their consolidation. It introduces the concept of structurally weak demand, distinguishing weakness embedded in the organisation of policymaking from situational gaps in policymakers’ skills or articulated needs. Drawing on Lithuania as an empirical case, it demonstrates how legalistic administrative culture, legislative inflation, drafting-first routines, political discontinuity and adversarial legislative politics suppress demand for evidence in a structural way. The analysis traces how key knowledge brokerage bodies and arrangements evolved between 2019 and 2026, including STRATA, the cross-ministerial Science and Innovation Advisers network coordinated by the Research Council of Lithuania, and the Office of the Government. It finds that their roles expanded beyond exchange facilitation towards demand cultivation to compensate for policymaking routines that did not reliably generate demand for evidence. Consolidation remained uneven, as temporary project funding, fragile organisational embedding and political discontinuity constrained durability despite investment.