Nesta (formerly NESTA, National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) is a British foundation, registered as a charity, which supports innovation.
Nesta was originally funded by a £250 million endowment from the UK
National Lottery. The endowment is managed through a trust, and Nesta uses the interest from the trust to meet its charitable objects and to fund and support its projects.
History
NESTA was set up in 1998 by an independent
endowment established by an Act of
Parliament
In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
, the
National Lottery Act 1998. It had been a
Labour Party manifesto
A manifesto is a written declaration of the intentions, motives, or views of the issuer, be it an individual, group, political party, or government. A manifesto can accept a previously published opinion or public consensus, but many prominent ...
promise.
was the first Chair.
In 2002 it was awarded £95 million.
In October 2010, the government announced that it would transfer NESTA's status from an executive
non-departmental public body
In the United Kingdom, non-departmental public body (NDPB) is a classification applied by the Cabinet Office, Treasury, the Scottish Government, and the Northern Ireland Executive to public sector organisations that have a role in the process o ...
to a new charitable body.
In April 2012, following the appointment of chief executive
Geoff Mulgan
Sir Geoffrey John Mulgan CBE (born 1961) is Professor of Collective Intelligence, Public Policy and Social Innovation at University College London (UCL). From 2011 to 2019 he was chief executive of the National Endowment for Science Technolo ...
, the body became an independent charity, shortening its name to Nesta. With this change, Nesta shifted its focus to innovation for public benefit.
In 2016, Nesta received a $300,000 grant from the
Global Innovation Fund to carry out research on market failures in aquaculture in Bangladesh and India.
Following the arrival of Nesta's new chief executive Ravi Gurumurthy in December 2019, Nesta announced their new 10-year strategy in March 2021 which focuses on three core missions: sustainability, health inequalities and the education attainment gap.
Operations
Nesta and the Nesta Trust are
registered as charities in England and Wales, and Nesta is registered in Scotland.
Following Nesta’s new 2030 strategy, Nesta primarily operates in the following three areas:
* A Sustainable Future: Nesta’s programmatic focus is on reducing household emissions by 28 per cent versus 2019 levels, helping to ensure the UK is on track to reach zero by 2048. They will also explore how to improve the UK’s productivity levels.
* A Healthy Life: Nesta is focusing on increasing long-term health whilst narrowing health inequalities. In order to halve the UK’s obesity rate by 2030, Nesta is primarily focusing on tackling food environments. Their secondary focus is expanding the evidence bank on the link between loneliness and ill health.
* A Fairer Start: Nesta is focusing on improving outcomes for low-income children. Nesta aims that, by 2030, the UK will have eliminated the school readiness gap between those born into deprivation and their peers, with similar gains at age 16 among students receiving free school meals.
Management
Sir
John Gieve chairs the organisation. Ravi Gurumurthy is the organisation's chief executive.
See also
*
Behavioural Insights Team
The Behavioural Insights Team (BIT), also known unofficially as the "Nudge Unit", is a UK-based global social purpose organisation that generates and applies behavioural insights to inform policy and improve public services, following nudge th ...
*
Co-production (approach)
*
Hidden innovation
References
{{Coord, 51.5165, -0.1086, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title
Charities based in London
Innovation in the United Kingdom
Innovation organizations
1998 establishments in the United Kingdom
Organisations based in the City of London
Research and development in the United Kingdom
Science advocacy organizations
Science and technology in Dundee
Science and technology in London
Scientific organizations established in 1998
Scientific organisations based in the United Kingdom