National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts
NESTA is a unique body with a mission to make the UK more innovative.
NESTA - the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts - is a Non Departmental Public Body (NDPB) funded by an endowment from the National Lottery. The National Lottery Act 1998 established NESTA with a remit to “support and promote talent, innovation and creativity in the fields of science, technology and the arts”. Through its unique mix of practical programmes, investments and its research and policy work, NESTA provides evidence of how the UK can best exploit innovation to solve some of the UK’s major social and economic problems.
NESTA is not funded by the Government or tax payers’ money. Instead, it is funded by interest from its endowment and return from its investments. NESTA provides impartial evidence and practical insight on how the UK can use innovation to promote economic growth and tackle social challenges. It is playing a key role in a number of Government priorities by contributing to the growth agenda and delivering Big Society programmes.
Following the announcement by the Cabinet Office on 14 October 2010 about a number of public bodies, BIS has been considering the status of NESTA. The Government is minded to use the powers in the Public Bodies Bill to abolish NESTA as a non-departmental public body and establish it as an independent charity with a separate charitable trust to hold the National Lottery endowment, subject to the approval of the Charity Commission. BIS launched a six week consultation on the proposed changes to NESTA on 18 October 2011. The consultation document can be found here.
Under the proposed new arrangements, NESTA will continue its work to provide evidence-based solutions using the innovative capabilities of the UK and will continue to be funded via its endowment. BIS and NESTA are consulting with the Charity Commission to ensure the objects of the new charitable company fit with those allowed for a charitable body. Arrangements will be made to hold the endowment in the public sector, in the form of a charitable trust, enabling income from the endowment to be distributed by NESTA after its transition to charitable status whilst also allowing the Government to protect the endowment. The timescale for transition will largely be determined by the Public Bodies Bill. Once it has received Royal Assent, an order and transfer scheme will need to be agreed by Parliament and we envisage this will be completed by April 2012.
More information on NESTA, its work and its proposed change of status from NDPB to a charity can be found here.
The BIS press notice announcing the change in status can be found here.
