Hidden Innovation

Innovation is essential to ensuring the UK’s future economic competitiveness and social wellbeing. Last October, NESTA’s report, The Innovation Gap, identified a gulf between how innovation happens in the UK and how policy supports it. Hidden Innovation helps to bridge that gap by taking a detailed look at the innovation systems of six ‘low innovation’ sectors.

Over the next few years, we need to develop policy to support innovation above and beyond its traditional home in science and technology. Should we do this, the prize is considerable – worldclass industries, high-performing public services and an international reputation as a thought leader in a critical area of competitive advantage.

I believe that this report makes an important contribution – both in terms of evidence and analysis. But its main message is that no single agency can deliver innovation policy, fully-formed, onto an unsuspecting country. NESTA will continue to investigate how innovation happens through its research, its programmes and its investments, but most importantly, it will seek to learn and to play its part in fostering all elements of the UK’s ecology of innovation. As always, we welcome your involvement and your views.

Jonathan Kestenbaum
CEO, NESTA

June, 2007