reports

A collection of publications 

Innovation labs and teams: a practice guide

This practice guide shows what innovation teams and labs do, and provides a practical introduction to establishing and running a new team or lab.

The landscape of public sector capacity and capability frameworks, toolkits and indexes: What they do and  what we can learn

i-teams: The teams and funds making innovation happen in governments around the world

This report tells the stories of 20 teams, units and funds established by governments and charged with making innovation happen. They work across the spectrum of innovation – from focusing on incremental improvements to aiming for radical transformations.

developing the Public Sector Capabilities Index: Phase I synthesis report

from good intentions to real impact: rethinking the role of evidence in education businesses

This report explores the role of evidence in education businesses, and how impact measurement can play a more central role.  I

Evaluation of project oracle

The independent evaluation shows that despite being at an early stage of development, Project Oracle is well placed to make a real impact on decision making practice surrounding youth services in London.

what should the what works network do?

This paper recommends five things the What Works centres need to do to ensure they maximise their impact, and avoid the mistakes of past evidence initiatives.

Making evidence useful: The case for new institutions

This paper outlines why the ‘What Works Network’ evidence centres are needed and the role they will play in policy making. 

Systems innovation discussion paper

Various perspectives on the potential for systemic innovation to help tackle some of the key challenges the UK currently faces

why we need to create a 'nice for social policy'

This paper outlines why we need to explore a centre – or a network of evidence centres – which help to institutionalise evidence in the decision making process. This led to the UK Government creating the What Works Centres. 

MAPPING THE STANDARDS OF EVIDENCE USED IN uk SOCIAL POLICY

This paper helps innovators, commissioners, providers, policymakers, services users, and practitioners to navigate the field and understand where standards of evidence exist, what they do, similarities between them, and where they differ.

evidence for social policy and practice

The idea that policy and practice should be underpinned by rigorous evidence is internationally accepted, yet there is recognition that the level of rigour in evaluating ‘what works’ in social policy remains limited.

Device Upcycling

Research for the London Office of Technology and Innovation (LOTI) and Nominet into how to bridge the digital divide in London.

Diffusion of Data-Driven Practices: How the Opinion Leading U.S. Cities are Advancing the use of Data in Local Government

Article published in State and Local Government Review that explores data-driven local government.

Quality in Qual: A proposed framework to commission, judge and generate good qualitative evaluation in wellbeing impacts

This discussion paper sets out a framework to help organisations choose and judge the most appropriate qualitative evaluation methods, with a focus on understanding wellbeing impacts.

Overcoming Inequalities in Citizen Participation in Participatory Budgeting

The report considers how to most effectively overcome inequalities in citizen participation in Participatory Budgeting (PB).

Innovations in prevention

This paper introduces the concept of prevention as a method to avoid costly harm, details the current spending on preventative measures, and outlines the stages involved in developing a preventative strategy

ten steps to transform the use of evidence 

The 10 things needed to improve the generation and use of evidence, from debunking the myths of RCTs, enabling innovation and evidence to co-exist, through to changing how we deal with failure and negative findings. This report coincided with the launch of the Alliance for Useful Evidence. 

Standards of evidence for impact investing

This paper introduces Nesta Impact Investments Fund and the standards of evidence we’ll be using to ensure our investments make a positive social impact.

rebalancing act

This report seeks to move the debate forward with data and analysis. It looks at a number of scenarios for a rebalanced economy, and asks two important questions: what is realistic, and what is desirable for the country. It highlights the vital role of innovation and high-tech industries in driving sustainable growth, and looks at what government can do with limited resources to make this happen.

Understanding R&D in the Arts, humanities and social sciences

Published in the Journal of the British Academy, this paper explores the role of AHSS R&D in UK business.

THE INFLUENCE OF PHILANTHROPIC FOUNDATIONS ON CITY GOVERNMENT INNOVATION

In this study I examine the role of philanthropic foundations in stimulating city government innovation.

A note on international comparisons of R&D Tax Credit programmes, the inclusion of the humanities and social sciences, and the policy implications

Published in the Journal of the British Academy, this study interviewed countries in the OECD that do – and those that do not – permit Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) R&D expenditure within their R&D tax credit programmes. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first comparative study of R&D definitions for tax relief.

standards of evidence 

This paper provides an overview of the Nesta Standards of Evidence, an approach used to measure the impact of a range of our practical innovation programmes and investments. The frameworks aligns the stages of innovation with rigorous evaluation methods. 

ASSESSING THE POTENTIAL OF MINI-PUBLICS TO PROMOTE EVIDENCE UPDATE IN SOCIAL POLICY AND PRACTICE

This report assesses the relationship between evidence provision in mini-publics and the subsequent effects on social policy and practice.

the development of project oracle

Project Oracle shows that it is possible to evaluate social programmes in line with academically rigorous standards of evidence. It also shows that this doesn’t demand complex system change but system adjustment.

using evidence to improve social policy and practice

A collection of essays on how evidence can be used to create better policies and services, which improve people’s lives.

Blockchain for local government

This report is an output of the Blockchain for Government Council - Cities Committee Taskforce. Blockchain is one of the most innovative technologies considered in digital government strategies. Going forward, more collaboration, testing environments (sandboxes) and more openness from the public sector are necessary to achieve further growth beyond proof-of-concepts (PoCs) and reach full operational services.

Evidence Institutes: Lessons for Australia from the UK, US and Canada

To understand how useful evidence institutes are and what determines their effectiveness, we looked at 58 evidence institutes in Australia, Canada, the UK and the US. It shows how evidence institutes can effectively influence decision-making to improve services for citizens, achieve better outcomes, and save money.

fostering innovation in the public sector

A chapter in an OECD report, based on a survey of more than 70 innovation teams across OECD countries, it examines their role in creating a culture of innovation and spreading the use of innovation processes and methods.