Nesta in Edinburgh: About the projects

On 12 September, Nesta will be holding a major event in Edinburgh on the potential impact of innovation in Scotland. Presentations will be given on the following programmes:

Britain's New Radicals

Angela Morgan
Includem
In partnership with the Observer, and using an expert panel of judges, Nesta identified 50 people and organisations who are changing Britain for the better; those applying fresh approaches in practical and scalable ways, through social, technological, scientific and artistic methods. The winners offer some much deserved recognition to some remarkable people and organisations. Nesta hopes it will inspire, motivate and provoke others to innovate and build on the ideas presented.

Includem provides a one-to-one relationship based service to young people at the times and the places that they are most at risk. Referrals come from Social Work Departments and the police for young people involved with gangs.The young people brought to Includem by social work are already outside of the normal safety zone that most people take for granted. Includem is often the last chance to help them which is why its staff are available 24/7, in person. The charity employs full and part time staff and works with around 300 and 400 young people at any one time. It worked with a total of 646 young people in 2010/11.

Make it Local

Ian Watt
Aberdeen City Council 
Nesta is supporting five local authorities in Scotland to create new digital services which benefit local and national communities by opening up their data. The open data projects will improve the use of green parks, travel and weather information in winter weather and support the access to historic monuments.

Aberdeen City Council is working in partnership with Aberdeenshire Council to develop a mobile-friendly website that reports road and travel conditions on an interactive map, helping users make informed travel choices and minimise disruption, particularly in bad weather. It will include information on gritting routes and current gritting operations, locations of grit bins, road and footpath conditions, travel and transport information, and weather forecast data. It will also allow citizens to provide their own live updates, ensuring timely and detailed local travel information.

Starter for 6

Philip Ross and Martin Izod
Safehinge.com

Starter for 6 is a creative enterprise development programme which supports creative start-ups in Scotland with training and coaching, peer mentoring, aftercare support, and the opportunity to pitch for investment up to £10,000. 

It was trialled very successfully by Nesta between 2006-9 and we supported 210 individuals and 183 business ideas during its initial period. The programme was originally designed by Nesta, in response to the Scottish Government acknowledging the importance of innovation-led creative businesses to the country's economy, but recognising they need customised support to face specific challenges. Following the successful 3 year Nesta run pilot we are delighted that the programme was mainstreamed through Scottish Government via Creative Scotland's Innovation Fund and is now run by the Cultural Enterprise Office. The learning materials used on the programme are within our 'Creative Enterprise Toolkit' which is on sale at Amazon and as a free download from our website.

Safehinge Ltd is an award-winning product design business with the aim of improving the built environment.  As the leading provider of high quality aluminium finger guards for doors, Safehinge supply to over 30% of local education authorities in the UK.  Other sectors include healthcare, leisure and retail.  Recently recognised as one of The Princes Youth Business Trust's (PSYBT) top 100 best performing businesses, Safehinge is also a Scottish Enterprise high growth company.

Digital R&D Fund for Arts and Culture, Scotland

Corinne Orton,  Programme Development Manager and Marjolein den Bakker, VoD Project Coordinator
Glasgow Film Theatre

The Digital Research and Development for Fund for Arts and Culture is a partnership between Creative Scotland, Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and Nesta to support arts and cultural organisations across Scotland who want to work with digital technologies to expand their audience reach and engagement and/or explore new business models. We have a £500,000 grant fund in 2012-13 to test ideas that will benefit the sector.

Glasgow Film Theatre and Edinburgh Filmhouse have united aims in using digital technology: both in exhibition and social media to broaden their audience reach and engage audiences at a deeper level. Distrify is a socially integrated digital engagement and Video on Demand distribution toolset. GFT and Edinburgh Filmhouse have partnered with Distrify to launch online film screenings from September 2012.

This project has been devised so that these 2 very popular independently programmed cinemas can reach beyond their cinema walls and engage with audiences in isolated areas, those who cannot visit in person and people from around the world who have an interest in curated cinema with a Scottish and international focus. With the curation skills of GFT, Filmhouse and our Film Festivals, and the tools used by Distrify in sharing films through online conversation to add to the shared experience of engaging with film, it will allow us to exhibit quality niche films that may otherwise not get a release on our screens.

Using new business models through the use of digital technology the project will enable the organisations to research best practice in broadening total audience figures and allow them to analyse digital metrics to gain valuable information on geographic location of audiences, the routes to purchase and the relationship between Theatrical and Home Entertainment.  The analysis will provide valuable data back to rights holders thereby informing and improving the future relationships between exhibitors and distributors.

Age Unlimited Scotland

Ena Brown
The Hub Community Café

In 2010 Nesta launched the Age Unlimited Scotland programme to reach, stimulate and support older people to create and lead innovative new community ventures. Through a competition-based call for ideas over two years, the programme provided training and mentoring which supported 27 people in their 50s and 60s over two years to transform their good ideas for community ventures across Scotland. Of these, 16 ventures were awarded micro-finance investment.

Ena Brown took up the Age Unlimited Scotland challenge following her own retirement. Her vision was to bring older people in the community together for weekly entertainment events. The Hub Community Café venture was born - a community café situated in a local church hall with entertainment, for retired people in the East Kilbride area. Attendees pay a small fee for tea, cake and entertainment and to cover operational costs; the café is run by volunteers and remaining funds from ticket sales are ploughed back into the venture.

The Hub now welcomes between 40 and 60 older people every Thursday, with a varied programme of entertainment ranging from guitarists and choirs to tracing family trees and bingo. With a strong intergenerational focus, the project also brings together young and older people through visits from young musicians and school groups.

Gregor Urquhart

Young Scot

Nesta is working with Young Scot as a learning partner to develop and refine a national rewards scheme for young people in Scotland. Building on nudge theory, social marketing principles and lessons learned from private sector loyalty schemes, this pioneering scheme will encourage and incentivise young people to participate in positive activities, with the ultimate aim of stimulating long-term behaviour change.

As Communications Director for Young Scot, the national youth information and citizenship charity, Gregor has overall responsibility for raising awareness of the organisation and its services to young people across Scotland, as well as to a wide range of stakeholders and partners.

Gregor took up the post in December 2007 after working in Young Scot’s public affairs and communications department. During his time with Young Scot Gregor has helped the organisation to position itself at the heart of everything young people in Scotland need to know and raising the profile of the Young Scot NEC card, which now has over 425,000 cardholders.

He has developed a passion for making a difference to the lives of Young Scots by providing them with the right information and services to help them make informed decisions and access opportunities. He has a particular interest in social media, the use of social marketing theory to changing behaviours and in promoting a more positive perception of young people in society.

Gregor’s priorities include managing relationships with key partners and stakeholders across the public, private and voluntary sectors and leading on the delivery of the organisation’s communication and marketing strategy. He also has responsibility for the production of the Young Scot Magazine, which has a circulation of over 500,000, and for the Young Scot Awards, an annual event run in partnership with the Sunday Mail which celebrates the achievements of young people, which won a Scottish Event Award in 2011 for Best Charity Event.

Prior to joining Young Scot in 2002 Gregor worked as a journalist after completing a Postgraduate Diploma in journalism studies. Gregor also has an honours degree in Politics from Glasgow University and has completed the CIPR’s diploma in Public Relations.

Destination Local

Alastair Tibbitt
Local Edge
Greenerleith.org
Broughtonspurtle.org.uk

Destination Local consists of ten projects which are jointly funded by Nesta, the Welsh Government and Creative Scotland. The projects were selected from 165 applications and will work alongside 11 successful Technology Strategy Board projects and Nesta's strategic partners to develop the next generation of hyperlocal media services.

The project, Local Edge, is a partnership between Greener Leith, Broughton Spurtle and Tigatag. Local Edge will allow users to receive and post geographically relevant news and information on their mobile phones. It will develop a loyalty card system working with local shops and service providers. Users who participate in civic activities will also be rewarded with vouchers to spend at local stores. Alastair Tibbitt is a founding member and the editor of award winning community news website Greenerleith.org.

Since 2007, Alastair has been working, often in a voluntary capacity, to develop a sustainable, community owned model for sharing local news. Thanks to funding from NESTA, Greener Leith is working with another non-profit community news outlet the Broughton Spurtle and developer Tigatag to build a suite of "virtual loyalty card" mobile apps that will help local independent traders connect with residents at an affordable price.

Alastair works as a multi-media journalist by day.

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