For many years, Nesta has offered up an annual set of predictions. We believe the start of a new year is still an ideal moment to examine the drivers shaping our world, but that the times we live in call for an approach that is explicit about uncertainty. As our Director of Discovery, Celia Hannon, explains, with the launch of the Future Signals series we are also returning to first principles. Each article you’ll read is centred around a signal – a piece of evidence such as a data point, observation, behavioural shift or insight from the field.

Under the microscope this year we look at topics that range from sleep as a new dimension of health inequality to where our food will be grown in future. We ask complicated questions too. Is carbon counting really a tool for behaviour change? How will Covid-related service closures impact families? Our Nesta authors don’t offer up easy answers, but this collection should help you to distinguish the signal from the noise in 2022 and beyond.