The recent Giving Challenge Finalists Residential was an opportunity to bring the Ageing Well and Waste Reduction Challenge prize Finalists together for the first time.
Globally we waste two billion tonnes of food a year, according to Waste Not Want Not, a report out today from the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.
Government has a habit of creating a false dilemma for itself: innovative but potentially flaky or safe and dull?
The Next Gen. report shows how we can shed fresh light on much-debated problems when we ground our thinking in proper research on a specific question
NESTA’s"Social Challenge Prize Guide" explains how to find exciting grassroots projects that actually deliver.
We have talked about the need for more and better use of evidence, but this does not always mean commissioning costly academic research. Instead we can find new ways of utilising the information already available and empowering wider society to make use of it. This means that as well as innovating with new programmes and policies, we also need to innovate with the tools we use to evaluate them.
Is data dull? The answer to this question is a resounding NO! In August 2010 NESTA launched a programme called Make it Local. The aim of the programme is to help show local authorities how to make the most of opening their data and working with digital developers to provide useful web-based services for their communities.
In a world where people are making informed choices about almost every aspect of their life in a way that is convenient for them and often aided and assisted by new technology, public services need to be equally responsive to these demands.
Although collaborative technologies can be assembled as tools that help users do more for themselves, they need to be designed in a way that makes this new kind of behaviour easy. Why? Because people need to feel motivated to embrace the change that collaborative technologies facilitate, so it is important they are designed to be useful, useable and delightful.
As technology becomes increasingly social, innovation can happen anywhere people can take for granted the idea they can work with others in the pursuit of a shared outcome But public services need to do more to share knowledge and skills across this emerging space because the dissemination of innovative ideas will support the spread of knowledge and is a good way of sharing skills and expertise.
![Twitter icon [original]](http://admin.nesta.org.uk/library/images/Twitter-button_34x35.jpg "Twitter icon [original]"){kind=small}
Follow our daily updates on Twitter @nesta_uk
![Linked in icon [original]](http://admin.nesta.org.uk/library/images/LinkedIn_button_34x35.jpg "Linked in icon [original]"){kind=small}
Take part in the discussion on our LinkedIn group
![Facebook icon [original]](http://admin.nesta.org.uk/library/images/facebook.jpg "Facebook icon [original]"){kind=small}
Share your views on our Facebook page
Sign up for our regular updates for the latest news and opportunities.
T +44 (0)20 7438 2500
F +44 (0)20 7438 2501
Nesta Operating Company, a company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales with company number 7706036 and charity number 1144091. Registered as a charity in Scotland number SC042833.
