An introduction to Nesta's Innovation Lab from its director Philip Colligan.

1. @philipcolligan
Essex sounding board
26 September 2014

2. • Nesta is the UK’s innovation foundation
• We help people and organisations bring great ideas to life
• We do this by providing investments and grants and mobilising
research, networks and skills
• Independently funded through an endowment provided by the
National Lottery

3. Nesta Innovation Lab
•Open innovation and challenge
prizes
•Grant funds that support
innovative ventures
•Programmes working with
public services

4. Sustaining
Disruptive
Formal Informal
Mapping public service innovation
Adapted from a model developed by
Charles Leadbeater

5. Sustaining
Disruptive
Formal Informal
Mapping public service innovation
Adapted from a model developed by
Charles Leadbeater

6. Sustaining
Disruptive
Formal Informal
Mapping public service innovation
Adapted from a model developed by
Charles Leadbeater

7. Some trends (actually lots…)
• Open innovation
• Design
• Co-production
• Social action / citizen engagement
• Behavioural insights
• Experimentalism
• What works
• Data
• Digital
• Entrepreneurialism
• Social investment
• Social enterprise / mutuals
• Systemic change

8. Social action / citizen engagement
• Mobilising citizens as a new organising
principle of public services
• Kings Volunteers: 1,500 volunteers
giving more than 250,000 hours and
increasing satisfaction
• 7,000 Shared Lives carers supporting
over 10,000 vulnerable adults
• Diabetes UK trialling an evidence based
approach to peer-to-peer support

9. Experimentalism
• Growing acceptance of experimental
approaches to policy changes
• Behavioural Insights Team has set a
new standard that is being replicated
across the world: Test, Learn, Adapt
• Government innovation funds around
the world increasingly linked to
experimentation and evidence

10. Experimentalism and evidence
Level 1
You can describe
what you do and why
it matters, logically,
coherently and
convincingly
Level 2
You capture data
that shows positive
change, but you
cannot confirm you
caused this
Level 3
You can demonstrate
causality using a
control or
comparison group
Level 4
You have one +
independent
replication
evaluations confirm
these conclusions
Level 5
You have manuals,
systems and
procedures to ensure
consistent replication
© Nesta Standards of Evidence

11. Data
• How we create public value from
data is one the biggest challenges
facing governments and public
services
• Contrast with the pace and scale
of change in private markets
• From data sharing within and
between public services to
individuals having control of their
data

12. How to organise for it…
• Local and national governments
are increasingly investing in
capacity and capability to
innovate (and import promising
ideas)
• Collaboration across sectors and
local partners is critical
• Lessons from i-teams around the
world are showing which models
work

13. Thank you
www.nesta.org.uk
@nesta_uk
philip.colligan@nesta.org.uk
@philipcolligan