Sign-up details: If you register or sign up for events, newsletters or publications on the site, or register for our alumni network, we will ask you for personal information such as your name, contact details including email address and occupation.

Job application details: If you apply online for a job at Nesta, we will collect information about you and your experience through that application process.

Other application details (eg, for services or funding): If you submit a tender to provide any services, apply for funding or support from Nesta, or enter a challenge prize, or register to attend one of our events, we may ask for more detailed information which we will use to process your application. You will be asked to agree to specific terms and conditions at the time of making the application.

Feedback and surveys: We may also ask you for feedback about Nesta or to complete surveys.

Research: If you agree to work with us in relation to any research we are conducting we will ask you for your name and contact details, occupation and may ask for further information about you as may be relevant to the particular research you are participating in.

Online activity: When you use our website, we obtain information about the device from which you accessed it, your visits and use of the website including your IP address, location, browser type and version, referrer and activity. We record your activity and preferences when visiting the site through the use of cookies (see "Cookies", below). You can always update your preferences and control your own data.

Your posts and communications: If you post content or communicate via the site, we may also ask for your name, occupation and the organisation you may work for. We also store and monitor your content and communications.

Purchases: If you purchase event tickets or publications via the website we will collect your name, organisation details, email and postal address, telephone number and payment details.

Your personal information will be used for the purposes listed in the table below. We will only use your personal data where we have a lawful basis for doing so.

However you choose to engage with or support Nesta, we may retain your information for our own legitimate business interests for statistical analysis purposes, in order to review, develop and improve our business activities. In this situation, we will limit any personal information to the minimum necessary to do so, and will always put in place appropriate technical and administrative safeguards, including, where possible, anonymising or minimising the personal information retained.

General principle: We will only keep any personal information that you provide to us for as long as is necessary to fulfil the purpose for which you gave us the information. We will securely delete information when it is no longer needed for that purpose, as explained in more detail below.

Events: If you attend one of our events, we will use your information for the purpose of the event, and will only contact you for any other purpose if you have said we can. We will retain your personal information collected for the purpose of the event for three years for evaluation and business development purposes to help us understand our audience and reach, and to improve future events. You can unsubscribe by clicking the link in our emails where indicated or emailing [email protected]. Or you can update your contact preferences at any time.

Purchases: If you buy a ticket for one of our events or purchase publications via this site or via Nesta’s Shopify shop, we will also keep your information on our customer database and to tell you about future similar events or publications available for sale. If you do not wish us to contact you about future events or publications for sale please let us know by writing to us or emailing us at the contact details below.

Consent: We keep records of consent, and any withdrawal of consent, on our files for as long as your personal information is being used in-line with that consent and for a period of six years after the consent is withdrawn (unless otherwise requested by you).

Job application details: If you apply for a job or send us a CV, we will keep your details on file for six months from the end of the recruitment process relevant to that vacancy. After that point, your application and/or CV will be securely destroyed. However, if you are successful in your application, then the information you provide during the application process will be retained by us as part of your employee file for the duration of your employment plus six years following the end of your employment.

Other application details: If you tender to provide any services, or apply for funding or support, or enter one of our prizes, and you are successful, then we will keep your information for six years after the associated agreement has come to an end, or if the agreement was executed as a deed for 12 years after the agreement has come to an end. If the project or initiative has any external funding or support, we may need to retain your information for a longer period to fulfil our obligations under those agreements, in which case we will tell you that at the time of application.

If you are unsuccessful in a tender to supply services or you are unsuccessful in an application for funding, support or a prize entry, once the process has ended we will retain your information for three years for evaluation and business development purposes, and to provide you with future opportunities to apply for similar opportunities, funding and support, or prizes in the future. If you do not wish us to contact you about future opportunities, please let us know by writing to use or emailing us at the contact details below.

Research: If you agree to take part in any research your personal information will be kept for as long as it is of value to Nesta and the wider research community, and for as long as may be specified by any external research funder, patent law, legislative and other regulatory requirements. Research data shall be reviewed at least every five years to consider its continued value to Nesta, and personal data anonymised or pseudonymised where possible, unless to do so would affect the integrity of the research data and/or its outcomes, or its future value.

To the extent that personal data arising from any research is embodied within a research report or other research outcome, it will be retained in perpetuity as part of the published materials.

Research that supports the development of a prize, project, programme, publication or other research outcome, shall be kept for at least five years beyond publication or any other research outcome has been completed. If the research is funded or the subject of any other contract, your personal data may be kept for six years after the end of the contract or longer if the contract or funding agreement specifies, which could be up to 12 years after the contract ends.

Posts and communications: any information that you post on the website shall only be kept and displayed for such time as the subject matter to which its relates is publicly displayed. These posts are reviewed periodically and may be removed at Nesta’s sole discretion.

Processing for statistical analysis purposes: This type of processing will only be undertaken whilst we retain your personal information in line with the principles explained above.

If you sign up to our mailing list, we will use your details to keep you informed about the latest news, blogs, programme updates, research, publications, event details, jobs and funding opportunities, and may request feedback, including our annual audience survey.

We use third-party providers to deliver our e-newsletters. We gather statistics around email opening and clicks using industry-standard technologies to help us monitor and improve our e-newsletter. We currently use Mailchimp, Salesforce and Eventsforce. Mailchimp and Salesforce servers are hosted in the US. All data entered onto Eventsforce is stored and managed in the UK. If you want to know more about how your information will be stored and processed, see the privacy policies for Salesforce, MailChimp and Eventsforce.

If you no longer want to receive marketing communications from us, you can unsubscribe from our mailing list at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link, at the bottom of our emails or by emailing [email protected] detailing your name and email address. If you are given the opportunity to update your contact preferences in any email from us, this will link to a form hosted by Surveygizmo. If this function is not made available, please email us at the above address with your preference updates.

We use third-party remarketing services to tailor advertising to you based upon your browsing history on this website, for more information see “Cookies” below.

We may share your information with our partners and companies who help us to operate this site, and, if you register to attend an event or apply to one of our programmes or indicate interest in any other activity detailed on the site, we may share your details with the companies/organisations and individuals who help us to fund, organise and operate the events, grant programmes and other activities. Our legal basis for doing this is to pursue our legitimate interest of being able to work collaboratively with other organisations to operate and administer the event, programme or activity. Some of these organisations may process your information in countries outside the UK, where data protection laws are not the same as in the UK. Rest assured that we will always ensure any transfer of your personal data for which we are responsible is subject to appropriate security measures to safeguard your personal data. Where transfers are necessary to countries where data protection has not yet been declared to be adequate, we rely on GDPR Article 49(1)(c) (as enacted into British law) for these transfers. Full details of these organisations, confirmation of where they would process your personal information, and details of the steps we have taken to safeguard your personal data will be provided as part of the online data collection process.

We may share your information within the Nesta group of companies, for the purposes of managing the event, grant or activity. Nesta currently provides all support and services for its subsidiary companies, therefore, our legal basis for sharing your information is to pursue the legitimate interests of shared resources and management reporting between the companies within the group. Our group companies will not process your data outside the UK unless we notify you otherwise.

Comments, blogs and other information which you post on the site are displayed publicly and can be viewed by other users. Please be careful when disclosing personal information which may identify you or anyone else. We are not responsible for the protection or security of information which you choose to post in public areas. Torchbox Limited, the developer of this website, will have access to personal information that you provide, including your name and where you work, if provided, solely for the purpose of the administration and maintenance of the website. Nesta has an appropriate legally binding agreement in place with Torchbox Limited to ensure the security of your personal information.

We may disclose your personal information to law enforcement or regulatory agencies if we are required to do so by law (in which case our legal basis for doing this is for compliance with a legal obligation), or to protect or defend ourselves or others against illegal or harmful activities (in which case, our legal basis for doing this is the pursuit of these legitimate interests).

This site uses cookies. Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer by websites you visit. They are widely used to make websites work, or work more efficiently, as well as to provide some useful information to site owners. Most web browsers allow some control of most cookies through browser settings.

This site uses a variety of types of cookies. Some are strictly necessary to enable you to move around the site or to provide certain basic features, such as logging into secure areas.

The site also uses performance cookies which collect information about how you use the site, such as how you are referred to it and how long you stay on certain pages. This information is aggregated and therefore anonymous and is used to improve the performance of the site. If you want, you can opt out of these cookies via our cookie preferences tool. Please note that some of the features of the site may not work if you choose to block cookies. To find out more about cookies, see our Cookie Policy.

We also use third party tracking cookies for remarketing, including Google Adwords. These third parties help us to send you tailored advertisements about Nesta that we think may be of interest to you, based on what parts of Nesta’s websites you have viewed. The advertisements will be shown to you on other search results pages, or on sites within Google’s or any other third party display network. We do not collect any identifiable information through the use of these third party remarketing services.

If you do not wish to receive such advertisements, then you can adjust your preferences using our cookie preferences tool. For more information on how Google uses advertising cookies, and to manage your settings and opt-out of these features on the Google support website.

We take steps to protect your personal information and follow procedures designed to minimise unauthorised access or disclosure of your information. If you have a password for an account on this site, please keep this safe and do not share it with anyone else. You should also not allow anyone else to log in using your details. You are responsible for all activity on your account and must contact us immediately if you are aware of any unauthorised use of your password or other security breach.

In the event that whilst using our site(s) you become aware of any potential vulnerabilities, please let us know. Please see our vulnerability disclosure policy for guidance on how to report a vulnerability.

You are legally entitled to know what personal information we hold about you and how that information is processed, which includes the right to:

• ask us to correct any mistakes in your information which we hold
• ask us to delete your personal information
• ask us to stop using your personal information or restrict how we can use it, for example if you feel it is inaccurate or no longer needs to be used by Nesta
• to object to us using of your personal information
• to object to any automated decision making that we may do using your personal information

If you wish to know what information we hold about you, or wish to exercise any of your other rights as detailed above, or have any complaint about how we are using your personal information, then please email us using [email protected] or write to us at 58 Victoria Embankment London EC4Y 0DS UK and provide enough information to identify yourself (e.g. name and address or any registration details).

If our information is incorrect or out of date, please provide us with enough information to allow us to update it. If you want us to delete, restrict or stop using any information we hold about you, please specifically confirm the reasons why you are asking this. If you are unhappy with how we are using your information, again please explain to us the reasons and we will investigate the matter.

You can also write to the same address if you have a complaint about this policy.

If you are unhappy with how any data rights request or complaint has been dealt with you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner:

• On the ICO website;
• By mail at Wycliff House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF, or
• By calling the helpline on 0303 123 1113.

This contact information for the Information Commissioner’s Office is correct as at the time this privacy policy is published.

We may change this privacy policy from time to time. We will notify you of any changes that relate to information we already hold about you, where practicable. You should check this policy occasionally to ensure you are aware of the most recent version that will apply each time you access this website.

Nesta, a company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales with company number 7706036 and charity number 1144091.

Registered as a charity in Scotland number SC042833.

Registered office: 58 Victoria Embankment, London, EC4Y 0DS

Email: [email protected]

Dated: December 2025