KEMs
Design methods
for professionals
contributing to solutions for societal challenges.
KEMs: the key
to Change
Our society is facing several major social and transition issues. For example, how do we create a healthier living environment and work on restoring nature? How do we make healthcare more affordable and at the same time more human? Change is needed to make our world more social and sustainable and we must initiate that change ourselves. We do this by developing innovations and interventions that help us see, think, act differently and that help shape our living environment.
KEMs – abbreviated from Key Enabling Methodologies – play a key role in this process. These (design) methods offer professionals an effective and targeted approach to developing innovations and interventions. In this way, KEMs contribute to bringing about the necessary changes.
About this website
This website is intended to inform professionals, clients and policy makers about KEMs and to provide inspiration on how they can be used in practice. In the long term, we hope to be able to provide more concrete support for the use of KEMs in practice.
About this website / purpose of website
This website is intended to inform professionals, clients and policy makers about KEMs and to provide inspiration on how they can be used in practice. In the long term, we hope to be able to provide more concrete support for the use of KEMs in practice.
What are KEMs?
The key to social impact
Key Enabling Methodologies (KEMs) – or 'key methodologies'‘ – are a large group of methods, strategies, processes, and tools that contribute to solving societal challenges – such as the energy transition or rising sea levels. These methods offer professionals tools to develop meaningful interventions and innovations with which we can set in motion the changes our society needs.
For everyone, applicable by the trained professional
KEMs are relevant for everyone who works on a complex social puzzle: the business community, schools, universities, thinkers, makers, policy makers, consultants, clients, non-profit organizations and citizen initiatives. However, the successful application of KEMs requires extensive knowledge and experience and therefore the guidance or supervision of a trained professional. He or she knows how to select the right KEM, masters the process that must be followed and knows what to look out for during implementation.
Where do KEMs come from?
Where to come
Where do KEMs come from?
Key role for innovation policy
The origin of KEMs lies in the (mission-driven) innovation policy. Through this, the Cabinet aims to further develop the innovative capacity of the Netherlands in order to tackle societal challenges jointly and thoroughly. The term KEMs stands for the groups of tools and methods that play an important role in this. The KEM research agenda delves deeper into these (groups of) methods and the further research required for this. Would you like to know more about what this agenda entails and how it came about?
Why use
your KEMs?
Accelerating the change needed
Due to their size and complexity, societal challenges cannot be solved overnight: change is slow and must take place and be accepted at different levels. This requires years of dedication and the development of many and different innovations.
KEMs offer professionals an effective, targeted approach to develop interventions that can initiate or accelerate the required change. This makes them highly valuable for change processes under time pressure.
A great example of how KEMs can accelerate the development of impactful innovations is Innofest. Innofest helps startups bring their innovation to the market faster by testing it at festivals and living labs (Experimental Environments). Using the Innofest Method, a suitable test setup is put together for each startup from various KEMs. The KEMs also tell something about how you can test the various aspects of your innovation and how you can go about it.
An approach to complexity
In addition, KEMs provide professionals with direction in tackling complexity. Social issues are without exception complicated: they affect people, society, the environment and simultaneously cover multiple disciplines. These methods offer a handle to tackle these kinds of complex puzzles.
For example, the Vision in Design method (Vision & Imagination) Redesigning Psychiatry for example a structure for drawing up a new vision on mental well-being for the future of the Netherlands. To do this properly, a holistic approach was needed in which various factors were examined and many people could be listened to (Participation & Co-creation)This KEM offered a method for exploring the future context and developing a normative framework, consisting of a human image and a vision of society.
KEMs are KEY ENABLING METHODOLOGIES
CLICKNL program manager Martijn Arnoldus explains what KEMs are and why they are crucial in achieving social impact.
KEMs are KEY ENABLING METHODOLOGIES
CLICKNL program manager Martijn Arnoldus explains what KEMs are and why they are crucial in achieving social impact.
What KEMs are there?
Eleven categories of KEMs
The KEM research agenda distinguishes between eleven categories of KEMs. Each category represents a collection of methods, processes, and strategies that serve the same goal as a group.
Vision & Imagination
Giving direction to change by researching, designing and/or visualizing a (shared) goal.
Participation & Co-creation
Involving stakeholders in an issue in order to jointly investigate, shape and bring about the necessary change.
Behaviour & Empowerment
Bringing about change by learning to understand and influence human behavior, or involving people in social change processes.
Experimental environments
Stimulating and shaping experiments to prepare innovations for practical application.
Value Creation & Scaling
Creating new forms of economic, social, cultural and/or ecological value and enabling rapid scaling up of interventions.
Institutional Change
Providing insight into the effects of institutions and supporting institutional change processes.
System change
Understanding and shaping transitions through a future-oriented and systems-oriented approach.
Monitoring & Impact Measurement
Monitor the change brought about by an intervention (within a system) so that adjustments can be made where necessary.
Ethics & Responsibility
Reflective change
Reflecting on and acting on ethical and moral questions that a (social) change or new technology brings with it.
Meaning & Awareness
Building bridges between complex issues and the general public
Enabling change by broadening our perspective, challenging existing patterns and habits, redefining values and critiquing systemic discomforts
Data for Exploration & Substantiation
Shaping change with data
Using data to explore (change) issues and provide inspiration and substantiation.
Eight categories of KEMs
The KEM research agenda distinguishes between eight categories of KEMs. Each category represents a collection of methods, processes and strategies, which as a group serve the same 'purpose'.
Dot on the horizon
Giving direction to change by researching, designing and/or visualizing a (shared) goal.
Realizing change together
Involving stakeholders in an issue in order to jointly investigate, shape and bring about the necessary change.
Control over behavior
Bringing about change by learning to understand and influence human behavior, or involving people in social change processes.
Innovating through experimentation
Stimulating and shaping experiments to prepare innovations for practical application.
Valuable change
Creating new forms of economic, social, cultural and/or ecological value and enabling rapid scaling up of interventions.
Working (with) the rules of the game
Providing insight into the effects of institutions and supporting institutional change processes.
Change from a systems perspective
Understanding and shaping transitions through a future-oriented and systems-oriented approach.
Measure & adjust
Monitor the change brought about by an intervention (within a system) so that adjustments can be made where necessary.
Reflective change
Reflecting on and acting on ethical and moral questions that a (social) change or new technology brings with it.
Building bridges between complex issues and the general public
Enabling change by broadening our perspective, challenging existing patterns and habits, redefining values and critiquing systemic discomforts.
Shaping change with data
Using data to explore (change) issues and provide inspiration and substantiation.
KEMs in practice
CASE
Climate Imaginaries at Sea
Climate Imaginaries at Sea brings together artists, designers and researchers in artistic research that focuses on underexposed perspectives on climate change.
RESEARCH
Imagination in transitions
With the help of the SPRONG subsidy scheme, the research project 'Imagination in Transitions' is being carried out. In this project, an umbrella research group of nine sub-research groups from four universities of applied sciences is working together in the Centre of Expertise for Creative Innovation to investigate and unlock creative methods for social issues.
METHODS
KEM monitor 2025
The first digital KEM monitor was published at the end of 2025. This concise, English-language trend report offers a current and concise overview of the most important developments in Key Enabling Methodologies (KEMs) over the past year. New methodological developments, insights, and research questions are mapped out for each KEM category.
CASE
Climate Imaginaries at Sea
Climate Imaginaries at Sea brings together artists, designers and researchers in artistic research that focuses on underexposed perspectives on climate change.
RESEARCH
Imagination in transitions
With the help of the SPRONG subsidy scheme, the research project 'Imagination in Transitions' is being carried out. In this project, an umbrella research group of nine sub-research groups from four universities of applied sciences is working together in the Centre of Expertise for Creative Innovation to investigate and unlock creative methods for social issues.