Funding Film & Digital Media - Cornwall - Nesta

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NESTA (the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) is a non-departmental public body (NDPB) investing in innovators and working to improve the climate for creativity in the UK.

Established in 1998 and set up with an endowment from the National Lottery (£200 million, raised in 2003 to £250 million), NESTA invests the interest to support UK innovation. Since May 2000, when the programmes first opened, NESTA has spent over £58m on programmes supporting 675 awards. Visit www.nesta.org.uk to find out more.

NESTA was set up by Act of Parliament in 1998 to help maximise this country's creative and innovative potential.

We are funded by an endowment from the National Lottery and use the interest to back people of exceptional talent and imagination. We do our best to offer the support they need to explore new ideas, develop new products and services, or experiment with new ways of nurturing creativity in science, technology and the arts.

We do this through a range of pioneering programmes, which you can read about in this section. As you'll see, these are incredibly diverse, with NESTA awardees working in every conceivable field of creative endeavour, from music to micro-biology, performance art to artificial intelligence.

NESTA’s distinctive approach

There is a common thread, which runs through all our programmes and distinguishes NESTA from any other investor: the kind of support we offer.

We invest early, and we don't expect short term success; if we believe that a project has the potential to enrich the nation, we're happy to take a risk on it. Sometimes, we back ideas that have exciting commercial potential; but we're equally interested in their social and cultural value.

We also aim to provide innovators with whatever kind of backing they need to turn their ideas into a reality. This means financial support as well as everything from mentoring to marketing expertise.

NESTA’s wider value

NESTA is much more than just a source of funding. Since we started, it's become increasingly clear to us that that we have a wider role to play, in working to improve the climate for creativity in this country. We are passionate advocates for the economic and cultural value of innovation, aiming to achieve changes in both attitudes and practice.

To this end, NESTA acts as a catalyst. We're committed to sharing our learning; working collaboratively with other interested parties and thinking imaginatively about how best to remove the obstacles that have prevented this country’s innovative potential from being fulfilled.

For more information visit www.nesta.org.uk