Futurelab

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Futurelab was set up in 2002 by the National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts (NESTA), an endowment in the United Kingdom established by an act of Parliament in 1998 to help maximise the UK's creative and innovative potential. Futurelab gained independence from NESTA in 2006, four years after being formed. Futurelab's main objectives were largely inherited from its parent, NESTA, and its mission objective is to transform the UK's capacity for innovative education through working with teachers, schools, key stake holders, organisation and companies to develop and showcase new innovative practices and prototypes with the aim of informing key policy makers in UK education.

Funding: Futurelab is a not-for-profit organisation largely funded by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES), but also gains additional funding from private companies such as Microsoft for specific projects such as Enquiring Minds ^[1] - a trial programme with a remit to encourage students to take responsibility for their own learning.

Geographical Context: Futurelab's office is next to the Watershed Media Centre complex, and is based in the aspiring "Ideopolis",^[2] or Idea City, of Bristol, England. It represents one of the knowledge-intensive institutions that have been taking root in the city reflecting the claimed nationwide UK shift to a post-industrial knowledge economy.^[3]