This spring we'’ll be launching a new fund to support public service innovations that harness the capabilities, expertise and resourcefulness of citizens and civil society.

Over the next two years, the Innovation Fund will: 

  • Develop a pipeline of innovations in social action across a range of priority outcome areas (e.g. older people living great lives, supporting young people into employment)
  • Support the most promising to grow their impact, including building robust evidence of what works
  • Enable a small number of proven innovations to achieve impact at significant scale

The Innovation Fund will form part of the Cabinet Office's new Centre for Social Action.

The Cabinet Office will back the new Innovation Fund with £10 million and Nesta will contribute another £4 million. The fund will build to on our existing work supporting social action ventures and initiatives, such as the projects funded through the Innovation in Giving Fund

Philip Colligan, Executive Director of Nesta's Public Services Lab has written a blog about the thinking behind the new Innovation Fund.

We'll be announcing more details on the Innovation Fund in due course so watch this space.