Standing out from the crowd

by Philip Colligan

One of my favourite things about these amazing Olympics has been the Games Makers. That's the 70,000 or so volunteers that can be seen across Central London and at Olympic venues all over the country. 

Canadian spring

I spent a few days last week in Canada, working with some of our partner organisations in technology, business and social innovation.

Up and running!

Things have been very busy for everyone over the last few months since Neighbourhood Challenge kicked off.

First encounters

I've been at NESTA a few weeks now and I'm going to be doing a regular update on some of the interesting projects I've been seeing, ideas I've been stumbling across and issues we've encountered.

Manchester workshop

It was great to see the Neighbourhood Challenge projects taking part in the Manchester workshop we held last week.

Public services as a platform for giving

Given the current fiscal context, it’s entirely understandable that debates about the future of public services are dominated by how to make fewer financial resources go further – how to get more with less.

What we need is Mass Localism

Government has a habit of creating a false dilemma for itself: innovative but potentially flaky or safe and dull?

Can challenge prizes give solutions?

"Clarity of both programme design and the challenge you set are critical to success"

We explore the debate around what makes a successful prize challenge to promote public and social innovation.

The big day is here

NESTA is abuzz with activity this morning because the Neighbourhood Challenge projects are being announced today!

Top tips for future apps

We received a huge response to our Neighbourhood Challenge project. Here are some useful tips for those of you wanting to go through a similar process again.