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Making Britain the innovation nation: why we should launch a ‘British Nobel Prize’

Nesta and Challenge Works at Conservative Party Conference
4 Oct 2026 16:00 – 17:30
Executive Room 2, Birmingham ICC (secure zone)

Science, innovation and technology are not just areas of competitive advantage for the UK, they are a path to good growth and national renewal. Launching a ‘British Nobel Prize’ is one practical idea that would enable the UK to harness and reward the best talent and ideas, wherever they come from, in service of solving big societal challenges.

Join Nesta and Challenge Works at this year’s Conservative Party Conference to discuss why we should launch a British incentive prize of equivalent stature to the ‘Nobel Prize.’ The session will explore a bold proposal for a new awards system equivalent to Sweden’s Nobel Prize but unlike Nobel, this would look to incentivise future solutions rather than past achievements. Discussions will focus on what future-focused prizes could achieve, why they’re needed now and how they could be used to stimulate, support and champion innovation.

Our expert panel will be chaired by Isobel Scott-Barrett, head of policy at Nesta and includes Tris Dyson, founder and executive director of Challenge Works, Hannah Madan, co-founder & COO, Prima Mente, Lord David Willetts, president of the Resolution Foundation and chair of the Regulatory Innovation Office and George Freeman, MP for Mid Norfolk and former UK Minister for Science.

This event will take place on Sunday 4 October from 16:00-17:30 in executive room 2 at the Birmingham ICC (secure zone). Add to your calendar.

Speakers

Isobel Scott-Barrett

Isobel Scott-Barrett

Isobel leads the policy team focused on UK government with a particular focus on issues that could enable or unblock progress on our mission goals. Isobel joined Nesta following a stint at Challenge Works, where she worked on consumer credit and the future of work, to contribute to the design and delivery of Nesta’s mission-driven strategy. She helped establish our health and early years missions, venture studio, ways of working, and later our policy function. Prior to Nesta, Isobel worked in political conflict mediation in Israel/Palestine and began her career as a domestic violence caseworker in Southwark. She holds a BA in Arabic and Middle Eastern Studies from Cambridge University and an MSc in Conflict and Development from SOAS.

Tris Dyson

Tris Dyson

Tris has led Challenge Works from its origins as a Nesta experiment to being a global hub for expertise and insight on challenge prizes. His aim is to deliver challenge prizes that inspire and enable the development of high impact innovations Before joining Nesta, Tris co-founded and led the social enterprise Tempo and was included in the first cohort of the Observer’s New Radicals. Tris has also run a Welsh university think tank, founded a social sector consultancy and was a Teach First Geography teacher complete with corduroy jacket.

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Lord David Willetts

Lord Willetts was appointed as Chair of the Regulatory Innovation Office in March 2025.

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Hannah Madan

Hannah is Co-Founder and COO at Prima Mente, an AI biology company focused on the brain; to understand it at a molecular level, protect it from neurological disease, and enhance it in health. She leads across people, product, partnerships and operations, with a track record of building and scaling early-stage biotech companies, having been employee number 1, 3, 12 and 70. Her work has consistently centred on developing products that translate biological insight into real-world applications, from precision medicine to clinical trials. Hannah holds a PhD from Queen Mary University of London, where she studied the link between diabetes and bowel cancer, and a degree in pharmacology from University of Bath. She also represented England in netball.

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George Freeman MP

MP for Mid Norfolk

Event information

4 Oct 2026 16:00 – 17:30

A powerful ecosystem for innovation

We extend our impact through two specialised units that help people and organisations to solve complex problems and achieve their goals.

BIT

BIT helps clients from government, nonprofits and the private sector to improve people’s lives through our empirical problem solving and deep understanding of human behaviour.

Challenge Works

Challenge Works designs and runs challenge prizes to spark innovation in science, technology and society.