Nesta's Impact Investment fund went live this week, backed by Nesta's own capital as well as Big Society Capital and Omidyar.
I spent a few days in Korea and China last week, both countries with a distinct spring in their step compared to north America and Europe.
People often think that the upper reaches of government are glamorous - the sort of world portrayed in Spooks and The West Wing. This amazing video which shows it more like The Thick of It is also one of the best short introductions to modern geopolitics:
There's a lot happening this autumn around evidence, with the Alliance for Useful Evidence moving into full operation, and a likely spread of 'evidence centres' around government. The UK position is a lot more promising than it looked likely a year or two ago. By contrast the US presidential election is not particularly heart-warming for those who believe in facts and evidence.
The autumn began with the very welcome news that Nesta had made a substantial profit through the sale of Sirigen - another hit for our venture investments team, which is steadily growing its role.
The past week has been a showcase of British Olympic ambition, not just on the track, field and water, but also in the opening ceremony.
This week Nesta launched a new prize supported by the Cabinet Office to reward innovations that can reduce isolation amongst older people.
I presented at a fascinating session earlier in the week on platforms for collective awareness, a European project to get to the bottom of how the future internet can empower people rather than ushering in new powers for big brother.
On the plane back from a recent trip to Seoul I was able to catch up on some books including Philip Ball's very readable ones on shapes and flow and Jonah Lehrer's new book on creativity which gathers a lot of recent evidence and case studies in a very digestable way.
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