Nesta (National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) is the UK's research and innovation foundation dedicated to helping people and organizations bring great ideas to life. Originally established in 1998 through an independent endowment from the UK National Lottery via an Act of Parliament, Nesta was originally funded by a £250 million endowment. The organization became an independent charity in 2012, shortening its name from NESTA. As a research and innovation foundation, Nesta applies deep expertise in applied methods to design, test, and scale solutions to some of the biggest challenges of our time, working across the innovation lifecycle.
Nesta operates at the intersection of innovation, technology, and social impact, combining expertise in applied methods, design, data science, and artificial intelligence to help communities and institutions harness collective intelligence and solve complex problems. Under chief executive Ravi Gurumurthy (appointed December 2019), Nesta announced a 10-year strategy in March 2021 focusing on three core missions: sustainability (reducing household emissions by 28 percent versus 2019 levels), health inequalities, and the education attainment gap. The organization is particularly renowned for its work on collective intelligence—the process of people working together, often with technological support, to mobilize a wider range of information, ideas, and insights.
Nesta's focus areas include tackling food environments to halve the UK's obesity rate by 2030, conducting research on how parliaments, cities, and political parties can use digital tools for better decision-making, and advancing innovation across health, education, and sustainable economics. Through its multidisciplinary teams and collaborative approach, Nesta has established itself as a pioneer in demonstrating how innovation, combined with evidence and collaboration, can create meaningful social change.