NESTA

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This page is about a UK organization. For the Italian football (soccer) player, see Alessandro Nesta.

The National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts is an endowment in the United Kingdom established by an Act of Parliament in 1998 to help maximise the UK's creative and innovative potential. NESTA is working to increase the UK’s capacity for innovation by investing in all stages of the innovation process, backing new ideas and funding new ventures that stimulate entrepreneurship.

Funded by a £250 million endowment from the UK National Lottery, it uses the interest arising from that endowment to fund and support talented individuals and groups who explore new ideas, develop new products and services, or experiment with new ways of nurturing creativity in science, technology and the arts.

As part of a strategic adjustment, NESTA closed many of its programs to new applications. The main Invention and Innovation programme (I & I) closed on 13 April 2006. This is an excerpt form their website announcement: “we have taken the decision to suspend the Invention and Innovation programme open-application process with effect from 9am Thursday 13th April.”

The replacement for the I & I programme was due to start in October 2006. However, this has now been delayed until early 2007^[1]