New NESTA report on local social innovation

“Transformers – how local areas innovate to address changing social needs” is a new report by the UK National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA) that explores why some places innovate more effectively than others.

Taking a series of case studies – drawn from the UK and internationally (including Lille, France; Gouda, Netherlands; and Portland, USA) – as a starting point, this report draws some fascinating conclusions about the factors common to success. Above all, it clearly shows that innovative capacity can be nurtured, even in unpromising circumstances.

Overall, three critical factors are identified as essential to successful innovation – the will to change, strong internal capacity, and external resources and feedback. The report builds a strong working model based on these three factors, and shows how it can be applied to a variety of situations, from community organisations to frontline services.

– Press release
– Report highlights
– Report (pdf, 6 mb, 140 pages)
– Policy briefing (pdf, 5 pages)
– Videos of launch event