1. We See
  2. We Spark
  3. We Shape
  4. We Shift

Opportunities & challenges

This stage is about asking the right questions, and getting a clearer picture through better data. Methods used here build understanding about the opportunities and challenges around a particular issue, helping to inspire new ideas.

Generating ideas

This is the stage where ideas are explored and developed. Ideas can come from all kinds of places. Methods used here encourage creative thinking, exploration and ways of sourcing ideas and learning from others.

Developing & testing

This stage is about testing ideas in practice. Finding out what works and what doesn’t is important so that plans can be refined and improved. Methods used here support experimentation and prototyping.

Making the case

This stage is about making the case that an idea works better than what’s already there, helping to attract the support of others. Understanding how to best use the evidence gathered through testing is important here.

Delivering & implementing

This stage is about moving the idea from concept to reality. The methods used here focus on embedding an innovation into everyday practice, which may involve cultural and behavioural, as well as organisational, shifts.

Growing & scaling

At this stage, there are a range of strategies for growing and spreading an innovation. Support for innovations at this stage involves providing access to funding, advice, networks and new opportunities.

Changing systems

This stage involves changes in the public and private sector over long periods of time, and interventions which drive the interaction of many elements and new ways of thinking. The success of some innovations sometimes depends on changing entire systems or developing new ones.

Opportunities & challenges

This stage is about asking the right questions, and getting a clearer picture through better data. Methods used here build understanding about the opportunities and challenges around a particular issue, helping to inspire new ideas.

Generating ideas

This is the stage where ideas are explored and developed. Ideas can come from all kinds of places. Methods used here encourage creative thinking, exploration and ways of sourcing ideas and learning from others.

Developing & testing

This stage is about testing ideas in practice. Finding out what works and what doesn’t is important so that plans can be refined and improved. Methods used here support experimentation and prototyping.

Making the case

This stage is about making the case that an idea works better than what’s already there, helping to attract the support of others. Understanding how to best use the evidence gathered through testing is important here.

Delivering & implementing

This stage is about moving the idea from concept to reality. The methods used here focus on embedding an innovation into everyday practice, which may involve cultural and behavioural, as well as organisational, shifts.

Growing & scaling

At this stage, there are a range of strategies for growing and spreading an innovation. Support for innovations at this stage involves providing access to funding, advice, networks and new opportunities.

Changing systems

This stage involves changes in the public and private sector over long periods of time, and interventions which drive the interaction of many elements and new ways of thinking. The success of some innovations sometimes depends on changing entire systems or developing new ones.

Innovation mapping

Our pioneering new approach to mapping and measuring innovation.

Combining new and old datasets with state of the art data analytics and visualisation, innovation mapping generates timely and detailed information on where innovation is happening, who is doing it and how to better support it.

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Futurescoping

‘Futures’ is an umbrella term for a set of tools that are used to analyse emerging trends, anticipate their impact and build stories about possible futures.

The further we look into the future the greater uncertainty there is. As an innovation method, futurescoping therefore aims to build understanding about the forces shaping the future, what surprises could be on the horizon and inform what actions could be taken today to deal with them.

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Challenge prizes

These offer a reward to whoever can first or most effectively meet a defined challenge. By taking the form of a public competition, challenge prizes aim to engage the broadest community of problem-solvers.

Nesta’s Challenge Prize Centre builds capability and evidence on this approach. So far it has attracted over 7000 problem-solving innovators to its challenges.

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Accelerator programmes

A type of highly selective, intensive and time-limited startup support programme that supports batches or ‘cohorts’ of firms at a time. They aim to support startups with growth potential, typically helping them to become investment ready in a short time.

Nesta has invested in early accelerator programmes, built peer support networks among operators and does leading research on how to make them more effective.

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Experiments and trials

An experiment is a way of trying something new while putting in place the necessary structures to find out if it works.

We often don’t know how innovations will work out so an experiment allows us to test new ideas and, based on what we learn, develop them further.

Nesta works with governments around the world to help them to experiment more effectively.

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Crowdfunding

A form of financing projects and businesses. Projects are funded by many small donations from a large group of people - “the crowd” - rather than by large contributions from a few traditional funders. Dedicated websites or online platforms facilitate the funding process.

Nesta has been involved in the alternative finance sector since 2010, working to understand how new methods of finance can be used to bring innovative ideas to life.

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Innovation prototyping

Prototyping is an approach to developing, testing, and improving ideas at an early stage before large-scale resources are committed to implementation. It’s a way of working which allows people to experiment, evaluate, learn, refine and adapt an idea.

We use prototyping funds to support innovators to take a structured approach to testing their new ideas.

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Experiments and trials

An experiment is a way of trying something new while putting in place the necessary structures to find out if it works.

We often don’t know how innovations will work out so an experiment allows us to test new ideas and, based on what we learn, develop them further.

Nesta works with governments around the world to help them to experiment more effectively.

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Standards of Evidence

The Nesta Standards of Evidence are used to help us determine how confident we can be that a particular intervention is having a positive impact. It helps us to seek the type of evidence that is proportionate to the stage of development of an innovation.

This approach is used to evaluate the evidence created by both our practical innovation programmes and our investments.

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Public and social labs

Innovation labs come in a variety of formats - they are sometimes called innovation teams, units or funds.

While they may differ in size and in the types of tools and resources they have access to, they typically use experimental methods to tackle both social and public issues.

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People Powered Results

People at the frontline of public services often have an unrivalled understanding of how the system works and insight into where change could happen.

People Powered Results is a structured innovation method that unlocks the knowledge, experience and skills of frontline workers and people to achieve better results in 100 days. The aim is to drive change from the bottom up.

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Crowdfunding

A form of financing projects and businesses. Projects are funded by many small donations from a large group of people - “the crowd” - rather than by large contributions from a few traditional funders. Dedicated websites or online platforms facilitate the funding process.

Nesta has been involved in the alternative finance sector since 2010, working to understand how new methods of finance can be used to bring innovative ideas to life.

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Impact investment

A form of investing that aims to generate positive social or environmental effects, as well financial return. As an innovation method, it focuses on understanding, quantifying and reporting on the social or environmental impact that comes from an investment decision.

We are a leader in impact investing with 20 years’ experience supporting innovative businesses scale their solutions to societal challenges.

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Innovation scaling

Scaling funds are programmes designed to support social innovations to reach more people, achieving greater impact.

Nesta’s approach draws on many years of research about routes to scale, and fills an important gap in social innovation funding. Scaling is a distinct stage in the process of developing a social innovation.

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Anticipatory regulation

An emerging method of regulation that is proactive, iterative and responds to evolving markets. It’s important since traditional ways of creating regulation are increasingly struggling to cope with the pace of change in technology.

We’re exploring its potential, and how to make it work in practice.

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Helping innovation happen

There are many ways to help bring good ideas to life.

Nesta works to uncover, analyse and test new ways of supporting innovation from across sectors and around the world. These techniques, tools and processes are collectively known as innovation methods.

Although every innovation is a complex story of feedback loops and jumps, there are various structured stages that most innovations pass through. We represent these in the innovation spiral. Explore it to find out what we’ve learned along the way.