Neighbourhood Challenge

Busy week for Neighbourhood Challenge

11.02.2011

The team at NESTA have been working very hard this week to prepare for the announcement of our Neighbourhood Challenge areas on Thursday 17th Feb.

It is a really exciting time for the programme and has been a privilege to be on the receiving end of so many innovative and exciting proposals.

We had such fantastic applications from our shortlisted groups that I really wanted to take them all through! But although we can’t take everyone onto the programme, I’m really pleased to tell you that we are in the great position of being able to take more than the 10 organisations we had originally planned for. Thanks to an additional investment from our partner BIG, we’ve increased the number benefiting directly to 17 areas – which I’m absolutely thrilled about.

The selection panel met yesterday and finalised the chosen projects and we are contacting everyone today to let them know if they have been selected or not. The final list will be posted up on this blog and announced at the kick-off event next Thursday,17th Feb. I look forward to seeing some of you there – we will post some photos online for those of you who can’t make it (we’re already fully booked)!

Considering the huge interest in this programme, from a range of innovative organisations doing inspiring work, I wanted to emphasise something here before the final groups are announced next week.

We do absolutely intend to benefit a wider network of those organisations who will not be direct participants in the core programme.

The team here has a few ideas here already, e.g. training and networking opportunities, but I want to make sure we take this in the right direction so I would love it if you could send us your ideas around what other kinds of support, resources or opportunities could be offered to those who have not been selected for the core programme. There is a real opportunity to influence what we do here.

Thank you once again to everyone who has been involved and in touch with the programme so far. Looking forward to next Thursday!