Programmes
Innovation thrives when talented people with creative ideas are given the right support, stimulation and incentives. NESTA’s Programmes are designed to find out – through building and testing different innovation models – the best ways to make that happen.
Overview
We are currently focusing on four main areas of interest:
Collaborative innovation: putting people and organisations together in unusual combinations to spark new ideas and new perspectives on old problems.
The creative economy: exploring new ways for creative organisations to develop their innovation capacity and drive growth.
Social innovation and finance: finding innovative ways, including new sources of risk capital for social ventures, to improve public services and tackle major social issues.
Young people and innovation: working with tomorrow’s innovators to develop the skills and attitudes that underpin successful innovation.
For a full list of our current programmes, please view our programmes portfolio.
Social Entrepreneurs' Fund
Social enterprises will benefit from a new fund, launched by Bridges Ventures.
Open Alchemy
Open Alchemy is encouraging firms to seek opportunities outside their traditional internal innovation streams.
Web Science Research Initiative
The Web Science Research Initiative aims to to facilitate and produce the fundamental scientific advances necessary to inform the future design and use of the World Wide Web.
Crucible
Crucible offers 30 early-stage career researchers an opportunity to develop new collaborations across disciplines.
Raise the Game
Raise the Game is helping to drive growth, collaboration and innovation in the UK video games industry.
Innovation in the arts
This project will use the Royal Shakespeare Company's expertise in collaborative working when creating performances, to explore the value of developing a similar way of working across the whole organisation.
Big Green Challenge
The Big Green Challenge is a £1 million prize fund to encourage and reward people working together to find new and better ways to tackle climate change.
Innovations in Mental Health
We’re supporting 10 projects across the UK to address crucial issues in the mental health service, as part of our Innovations in Mental Health scheme.
Health Launchpad
Health Launchpad is an early-stage incubator, which develops the most promising ideas around long-term conditions into new ventures by providing financial support, time and expertise.
Employer engagement studies
Read our latest three studies that explore how organisations and businesses can engage more effectively with education.
Planet SciCast
Planet Scicast is a new project that is challenging people from all age groups to make mini movies of exciting science experiments.
Measuring innovative characteristics in young people
Professor Elizabeth Chell is working with colleagues at Kingston University to develop a tool that will measure the capacity for innovation of young people.