After four years and five iterations (Pacific Alliance, South East Asia, India, Brazil and Europe Middle East and Africa), the first round of the Global Innovation Policy Accelerator is coming to an end. It’s been an exciting journey that has involved more than 260 innovation policymakers, 110+ participants and 155+ agencies across 17 countries from around the world. Thanks to the accelerator programme, around 25 innovation policy projects have been presented by participants to their local agencies and ministries.

To celebrate this journey, we have produced a series of four videos that tell the story of the accelerator through the words of the people who lived it.

In this first video find out more on the programme and what makes it unique from the point of view of the Nesta team, the delivery partners and our funders at Innovate UK and the Newton Fund. We’ll then take a closer look at the experiences of the participants in India, Brazil and Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA).

The Indian participants share their experiences in this video and touch on how, thanks to the accelerator, they were able to improve their leadership by becoming more receptive to good ideas.

Hear from our Brazilian participants, local partners and the in-country Newton Fund Manager on how the active learning element of the accelerator was key to designing concrete projects with a real impact.

In this video, EMEA participants, local partners and Newton Fund officials from Egypt, Jordan, Kenya, South Africa and Turkey illustrate the benefits of being part of a multi-country cohort and how this opportunity allowed them to learn from international best practices.