Bringing great ideas to life

Nesta is the UK’s foundation for innovation. We were set up to help turn great ideas into successful innovations that change lives for the better.

Over the past 14 years Nesta has backed hundreds of creative individuals and dozens of new enterprises, charities and projects of all kinds, from inventors of new materials to makers of videogames, and providers of childcare to communities finding solutions to climate change.

Nesta has also promoted better understanding of innovation, designing new methods for measurement and new policies, as well as innovative tools, ranging from accelerators for start-ups to websites making the most of public data.

Our unique strength lies in being able to link finance with research, networks and skills - the more we bring these together, the more we can do to help great ideas to thrive.

Becoming an independent foundation

In April 2012, Nesta moved out of the public sector to become an independent charitable foundation. We continue to benefit from the income provided by Nesta's £320 million endowment, but we now have new freedoms.

Over the last year we've listened to comments from both supporters and critics on how we should use that freedom and how we can sharpen up our work. These are some of the ways we'll be working in the future:

Outcome-focused programmes: over the next few years we'll be focusing on a few areas of challenge and opportunity where we think big impacts are possible. This spring we're launching new programmes on digital education and hyperlocal media, and we're already working with groups of doctors and primary care providers to find better ways of involving patients in managing long term health conditions.

Open innovation: another strand of our work will involve open funds encouraging innovation in different fields. In public services we are helping 17 local authorities to develop their ideas through the Creative Councils programme, and we're supporting civil society through the £10 million Innovation in Giving fund. In April we'll be launching a new centre for challenge prizes, providing significant prizes for innovators who can solve problems. And later this year we hope to expand our digital R&D fund for the arts, developed in partnership with the Arts Council and the Arts and Humanities Research Council.

Investment: we will continue to act as an investor, from technology start-ups and accelerators, to social enterprises and social finance intermediaries. We anticipate continued growth in this area alongside further work to improve the environment in which new firms can thrive.

Research: to guide innovators and policymakers, we'll be deepening our research on how innovation happens, covering everything from new financial tools to lessons from the world's most successful innovation systems. We're also shaping new statistical methods to measure innovation throughout the economy, as well as better ways of making evidence useful. One output of our research work will be an ambitious strategy for the UK - which we're calling Plan I - showing how ideas and ingenuity can best be mobilised to drive economic growth.

Skills: we're keen to be as useful as possible to innovators, and so will be scaling-up our role in providing skills and tools for people with ideas. Nesta's digital platform will offer a range of services, for example with guides on how to understand problems to be solved; how to be creative; how to test ideas; how to refine business models; and how to evaluate and measure. For this, we're drawing on successful models from all sectors and all over the world, ranging from crowd-sourcing to incubation, design thinking to preventive investment. Innovation can be mercurial, and there's no manual that can guarantee innovative results - but there are many methods available which can improve the chances of success.

In all of this work we're also striving to be a better collaborator. Almost everything we do depends on partnership with others. We want to be seen as a partner of choice for innovators, investors and funders in many fields. Just as importantly we'll be working hard to get value for money. In our first year as a charity, we will be directing more resources and a higher proportion of our turnover to innovators than ever before, as well as backing more enterprises and ventures. We'll also be recycling more money from the sale of successful investments.

What we hope to achieve

Our ambition is to help the UK's innovators overcome the many barriers they face. Nesta is still a relatively young organisation and we have limited resources. But we're in the very lucky position of gaining greater independence and freedom at a time when many organisations face severe constraints. We want to use that freedom to stand on the side of imagination - promoting fearless creativity in the service of the common good; growing stronger companies, charities, public services and communities; and finding better answers to our most pressing challenges.

We hope that we can work with you and many others. Stay in touch on Twitter, on Facebook and here on our website.

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