Nesta stands for National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts. It was established by s,18 of the National Lotteries Act 1998 to administer funds raised by the lottery. In 2012 its assets were transferred to a charity which has carried out the Endowment's functions ever since (see National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts is now independent of the UK government on the UK government website). Nesta describes itself as "The UK's innovation agency for social good."
Yesterday Nesta published its first issue of Nesta Cymru, a newsletter on the charity's events, research and projects in Wales, It discussed healthy school meals, access to healthy food for adults to combat obesity, Nesta's submission to the Senedd on decarbonizing the private housing sector, access to green finance to upgrade homes, Nesta's partnership with Flintshire County Council to use early years data to support families, Helen Wales's article on Graham Donaldson, Laura James's article Embracing insurgency: why local authorities need to be ready to fail and an interview with Dr Jan Rosenow, Principal and Director of European Programmes, Regulatory Assistance Project.
Nesta Cymru indicates Nesta's collaboration with the Welsh government, Cardiff University, the Wales Council for Voluntary Action and the Arts Council of Wales to fund programmes, produce research and design and test new ideas in its mission areas. Nesta notes that devolution enables Wales to experiment and try new ideas for social good, finding places where devolution allows it to go further and faster in achieving its aims. It has already set up Arloesiadur: an innovation dashboard for Wales and Y Lab, a public services innovation lab for Wales with Cardiff University and has supported several arts projects in Wales.
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