About Nesta

Nesta is an innovation foundation. For us, innovation means turning bold ideas into reality and changing lives for the better. We use our expertise, skills and funding in areas where there are big challenges facing society.

The Nesta in Scotland team exists to deliver against Nesta’s strategic aims in Scotland.

Nesta’s strategy to 2030 sets out three innovation missions to guide and inform our work across the nations of the UK over the next ten years:

  • A fairer start: We want every child to have an equal start in life. Our mission is to narrow the outcome gap between children growing up in most and least deprived communities in Scotland.
  • A healthy life: We want good health for all, particularly those most affected by existing inequalities. Our mission is to increase the average number of healthy years lived in Scotland, while narrowing health inequalities
  • A sustainable future: We want a future that works better for people and the planet. Our mission is to accelerate the decarbonisation of household activities in Scotland and improve levels of productivity.

As a devolved nation, there are unique opportunities in Scotland to experiment and test new ideas for social good, finding places where devolution allows us to go further and faster in achieving our aims.

We also support colleagues from different teams on UK-wide Nesta programmes and partnerships.

Explore some of our recent work such as the Virtual Healthy Neighbourhood Challenge with Nesta’s arts practice and Dundee’s InGAME, our research into future job trends or our analysis of the cost of heat pumps for heating Scotland’s homes.

Contact us

If you would like to find out more about any of the points above or are interested in working with us, please get in touch by emailing us.

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