About Nesta

Nesta is an innovation foundation. For us, innovation means turning bold ideas into reality and changing lives for the better. We use our expertise, skills and funding in areas where there are big challenges facing society.

‘What Works’ in Corporate-Startup collaboration: an online repository of resources

As a corporate, why should I consider working with startups? What are the benefits and risks involved? How should I structure my programmes in order to engage with them? 

And, as a startup, how should I approach corporates? What’s the best way to present my project?  

If you have found yourself asking these questions, then the ‘What Works’ online repository is for you. 

For two years Nesta, along with the Startup Europe Partnership, have been studying corporate-startup collaborations, by interviewing more than 60 corporates and almost 100 startups and scale-ups. The learnings from these conversations, as well as consultations with experts and analysis of secondary research, has led to the production of various useful materials (see gallery on the bottom of the page), including the reports Winning Together and Scaling Together.

For a quick overview of our work to date check this presentation. 

Specifically, our online resources will help corporates to: 

  • implement the most suitable programmes to achieve common goals
  • overcome internal and external barriers of collaborations
  • be inspired by case studies of other big organisations already working in this field.

It will help startups to:


This project was supported by the Startup Europe Partnership (SEP), an initiative funded by the European Commission. SEP is the first pan-European open innovation platform dedicated to transforming European startups into scale-ups by linking them with global corporations. 

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 644104. 

Photo credit: Thickstock

Author

Siddharth Bannerjee

Siddharth Bannerjee

Siddharth Bannerjee

Researcher, Digital Startups

Sidd was the policy researcher on two projects dedicated to fostering digital entrepreneurship and building entrepreneurial ecosystems across Europe – Startup Europe Partnership (SEP) …

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Simona Bielli

Simona Bielli

Simona Bielli

Head of Programmes – Nesta Italia

Over the last year, Simona was working on a new exciting project that led to the foundation of Nesta Italia.

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Christopher Haley

Christopher Haley

Christopher Haley

Head of New Technology & Startup Research

Chris led Nesta's research interests into how startups and new technologies can drive economic growth, and what this means for businesses, intermediaries and for the government.

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Valerie Mocker

Valerie Mocker

Valerie Mocker

Director, Development & European Digital Policy

Valerie and her team focused on helping policy makers, corporates, entrepreneurs and society make the most of the digital transformation.

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Jonathan Bone

Jonathan Bone

Jonathan Bone

Mission Manager, healthy life mission

Jonathan works within Nesta Cymru (Wales), focusing on working across public, private and non-profit sectors to deliver innovative solutions that tackle obesity and loneliness in Wales.

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Yann Finger

Yann is a Research Assistant in the policy and research team. His focus is on investigating policies supporting digital entrepreneurship across Europe, as part of the Startup Europe Pa…