This report contains four case studies which show how innovative economic activity can radically transform an area. Rather than trying to create the whole innovation system from scratch, they show that successful regeneration fundamentally involves making the most of existing assets, creating links and exploiting synergy between what is already in place, and then building upon these and plugging the gaps by drawing in resources from outside.

This report presents the main evaluation findings arising from five pilot projects, supported by NESTA (the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts), to test different ways of developing an awareness of risk-taking in young people or the professionals who work with them. NESTA’s mission is to make the UK more innovative and we believe that, as well as being a crucial life skill, the ability to take informed and calculated risks is fundamental to innovation. Risk-taking encompasses a range of competencies. Alongside the confidence to challenge

The UK has in recent years undergone a digital revolution. New technologies such as digital TV, music downloads and online games are ripping up established business models. Last year, the UK became the first major economy where advertisers spent more on internet advertising than on TV advertising.

NESTA and IDeA have produced this pamphlet to demonstrate how developments in social media might affect, and be used in, the work of local government. It illustrates some of the amazing possibilities and highlights some of the risks to councils if they ignore these technological advances and the people using them.

This book is the collective gathering of informed views from seasoned video games developers. It is the result of our year-long pilot in mentoring where we paired up seven ‘young’ UK video games developers, (representing all platforms – mobile, handheld, console, on-line and adver-games) with a video games expert who had the skillset, experience and independence to support a younger business in their commercial growth. This book has been compiled by the mentors and participants on this programme. ELSPA and TIGA have also contributed pieces

For the past three years The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) has been working to transfer their "ensemble" way of working out of their acting company and into the rest of the organisation. The approach takes a more collaborative and democratic ways of managing the company. NESTA's role in this project has been to highlight its innovation nature and to identify a transferable model that can be adopted by other organisations. Read more about Innovation in the arts. The project has been closely followed by the think tank, DEMOS who have produced a report of the key activities and findings.

This working paper presents key findings from research by the Work Foundation for NESTA. The research reveals how consumer demand is influencing innovation within organisations. It shows that organisations are missing out on opportunities to involve users early in the innovation process, and thus valuable insights which could maximise their competitive advantage.

Policymakers increasingly recognise that many of the solutions to major social challenges – from tackling climate change to improving public health – need to be much more local. Local solutions are frequently very effective, as they reflect the needs of specific communities and engage citizens in taking action. And they are often cost-effective, since they provide a conduit for the resources of citizens, charities or social enterprises to complement those of the state. Given the growing pressure on government finances, these are important benefits

Hot Topics is a new series of NESTA events focussed on the new ideas and technologies that will change business and society in the next few years. The seventh event in the series, Food (plus) Tech – the next sustainability challenge, explored the role of digital technology in re-connecting consumers with food production and encouraging them to make sustainable choices. This report draws together some of the key ideas covered on the day, with further examples, links and videos available on the event resources page.

Social enterprise planning tool - template that you can use, as many times as you like.

In the aftermath of the recession, countries across Europe face a range of challenges. The immediate one is to consolidate the nascent recovery and create jobs. But if European economies are to thrive in the next decade they also need to meet the longstanding productivity challenge: European businesses are less productive on average than those in the United States, and this gap had been widening for over a decade before the recession took hold.

The UK’s cities face an unprecedented economic challenge. They need to foster the economic growth necessary to recover from the deepest recession the UK has seen for decades. And they must do this at a time when public spending is dramatically reducing. This is doubly problematic for many British cities. It means far less money will be available to pay for traditional regeneration and economic development projects. But at the same time, it means that cities cannot rely on the expansion of the public sector to provide growth; indeed they will have to rely on the private sector all

The future prosperity of the UK depends on the country’s ability to foster and support growth businesses. The venture capital industry is ideally placed to be a cornerstone of this support and, though younger than the US industry, UK funds have already had some notable successes.

This year’s Olympics focused our attention once again on China. The stunning ceremonies and victories in Beijing reinforced a widespread acceptance among politicians and policymakers of the importance of trade and academic links with the world’s most populous nation. But there is a danger in the rush to embrace Chinese students and trade links that we ignore other rapidly growing economies – places like Brazil – and small but innovative new players like Estonia. Yet our own innovative capacity depends as much on building links with these new kids on the

The UK early-stage venture capital market is currently experiencing major changes. With private funds – once the bedrock of start-up investment for entrepreneurs – moving away from the early stage, it is not just entrepreneurs but the economy as a whole that will be affected.

Evidence-based policy demands reliable data. Existing innovation metrics constrain policymakers by reinforcing a linear model of innovation that bears little relation to the innovation that is most relevant to the modern UK economy. Traditional metrics fail to adequately capture ‘hidden innovation’: innovation in services, the public sector and the creative industries, or new trends in open and user-led innovation. Around the world, policymakers are demanding new ways to measure innovation. In Innovation Nation, NESTA was called upon to develop a new

Innovation has been a subject of serious academic and policy interest for several decades. The ‘creative industries’ have been studied for a shorter period of time, but perhaps more intensely. However, we do not understand well the process of innovation within the creative industries, nor how waves of innovation from elsewhere impact upon them. Since they represent a large and fast-growing part of our economy, this gap in our understanding needs to be remedied. Working with the Manchester Institute of Innovation Research, this research project uses the tools