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Generating Brilliance
NESTA - the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts - was established by The National Lottery Act 1998. It was provided a £200 million endowment from the National Lottery, and the income from this funds NESTA's work. In February 2003, NESTA received a further £95m, from lottery funds. £50m of this will increase our core endowment and the remaining £45m will be spent, at £15m a year, to enable us to extend and deepen our activities.
NESTA's statutory objects are: "to support and promote talent, innovation and creativity in science, technology and the arts."
To achieve our aims, we're willing to take risks, often investing in ideas at an early stage where there is no certainty of outcome. We look for people and ideas that push at the frontiers. Inventive thinking and entrepreneurial ideas help boost our economy, benefit our society and enrich our cultural life.
NESTA has three core funding programmes:
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Invention and Innovation
Individuals, small teams and micro-businesses can apply to this programme. It invests in original ideas, to help turn them into products, services, industrial techniques or artistic ventures with real commercial or social potential.
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Fellowships
These awards give exceptional people a genuine opportunity to develop their talent and fulfil their potential. Our Fellowships provide individuals and small teams the time and resources to explore, experiment, pursue a hunch, break new ground and pursue creative goals.
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Education
Our Education programme supports inventive steps in teaching and learning. We aim to develop projects that foster individual creative ability. We also support initiatives that enhance public knowledge and appreciation of science, architecture, the arts, design, engineering, innovation - and the many other fields we cover.
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You can see all the awards we've made to date by clicking here
We have also delivered, under contract to the Government, Science Year, a DfES initiative to engage young people with science. This has been so successful that it has been extended for a further academic year, renamed "Planet Science".
One of our great strengths is our ability to support people whose work blends disciplines - never confining ourselves to projects that neatly map to any one art form or conform to single fields of science or engineering.
Our policy is to invest in people and ideas. That's because we recognise the power of individuals to push knowledge and insight forward into new territory - scientists, artists, engineers, designers, architects, software writers, composers, performers, mathematicians, inventors - just some areas of talent we cover.
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