About Nesta

Nesta is a research and innovation foundation. We apply our deep expertise in applied methods to design, test and scale solutions to some of the biggest challenges of our time, working across the innovation lifecycle.

Originally developed using rubber, wood and tyre cord, a temple sculptor, frustrated with the unaffordability of prosthetic limbs designed and manufactured a prosthetic foot with a new design, and for under $45.

This had far greater functionality, allowing the amputee to squat, run and sit cross legged. Philanthropically funded, the organisation has expanded internationally and into other forms of physical rehabilitation.

The organisation’s work more recently inspired a $20 prosthetic knee joint designed and developed with Stanford University and D-Rev. Made of an oil-filled nylon polymer and requiring no tools and just under an hour to assemble, it was fêted by Time magazine as one of the best 50 inventions in the world in 2009