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.

The Nightingale

In this paper we propose a new centre of innovation and research excellence to equip us with the knowledge we need to improve the social, behavioural and environmental determinants of health.

For too long the UK has promised to tackle health inequalities and improve health but hasn’t followed through with sufficient investment or action. This means we know a lot about what causes good and bad health, but woefully little about how best to improve it.

As the Government prepares its green paper on prevention, it simply won’t be enough to double down on their commitment and hope for different results. It’s time for a radical shift in investment, infrastructure and evidence, building our collective understanding of how to create and sustain the best conditions for good health, through a step-change in investment for evidence-based solutions.

We propose a new centre of innovation and research excellence to turn this ambition into reality, drawing expertise from across public health and behavioural and social sciences, with the best practices from human-centred design, citizen science and asset-based community development.

We suggest calling it ‘The Nightingale’, in honour of Florence Nightingale’s vital contribution to public health research and practice.

In this paper we recommend that the Nightingale:

  • cuts across disciplines (eg public health, research, social sciences, data, design and community development) to reflect the multifaceted nature of public health challenges and the impact of local context and experience;
  • operates an intensive R&D model that creates evidence-based solutions at pace, using a combination of creative ideas, practical experimentation and rigorous evaluation which goes beyond research alone; and
  • receives a budget of £140 million per year by 2025, equivalent to that of the Francis Crick Institute.

Authors

Christina Cornwell

Christina Cornwell

Christina Cornwell

Interim Executive Director for Health

Christina led Nesta’s work helping to develop and grow innovations that create new relationships, networks and technologies that improve health and well being.

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Halima Khan

Halima Khan

Halima Khan

Executive Director, Health, People and Impact

Halima was the Executive Director of the Health, People and Impact. She led Nesta’s work in health and also oversaw people (human resources) and impact for the organisation.

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Geoff Mulgan

Geoff Mulgan

Geoff Mulgan

Chief Executive Officer

Geoff Mulgan was Chief Executive of Nesta from 2011-2019.

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