Nesta UK

On 16 October, we recorded this episode to look at predictions and forecasts about the way Brexit events might unfold - ahead of the original 31 October withdrawal deadline.   So who got it right? Which method gazed accurately into the future?    Using Brexit as a case study, this episode discusses different prediction and forecast methods - polling, betting, the wisdom of the crowd...

What are the applications or the ramifications of new tiny mechanical bees? And how will society adjust?   This episode is about the technologies that we may well see in the 2020s, such as swarm robotics. We look at the uses but also the responsibilities that need to accompany such technological and scientific shifts.    Dr Edmund Hunt talks to Nesta’s Bea Karol Burks about his work...

Kadine James, Creative Tech Lead, Hobs3D Usman Haque, Founding Partner, Umbrellium Florian Ortkrass, Co-Founder and Co-Director, RANDOM INTERNATIONAL In this final session, Kadine James, Usman Haque and Florian Ortkrass discuss the infrastructures of participation: How do we best design for participatory processes? The panelists also explore the predictability of human behaviour, our collective in...

Imran Khan, Head of Public Engagement, Wellcome Trust Cath Sleeman, Head of Data Visualisation, Creative Economy & Data Analytics, Nesta Rosana Ardila, Senior Open Innovation Manager, Mozilla Federica Cocco, Statistics journalist, Financial Times Jessica Sena, Software Engineer at Typeform (Growth team), Geochicas member In this session, our panelists discuss data gaps, biased data, and the link b...

Gina Lucarelli, Team Leader, UN Development Programme Accelerator Lab Network Maesy Angelina, Social Systems Lead, UN Pulse Lab Jakarta Claudia Juech, CEO and President, Cloudera Foundation Gina Lucarelli, Claudia Juech, and Maesy Angelina discuss the unforeseen consequences of innovation, the need to avoid relying on tech as a solution to everything, and the importance of open data to positively...

Carly Kind, Director, Ada Lovelace Institute Aleks Berditchevskaia, Senior Researcher, CCID, Nesta Karina Vold Postdoctoral Research Associate, Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Cambridge Julien Cornebise, Honorary Associate Professor, University College London Marco Marchesi, CTO, Happy Finish Our panelists discuss some of the challenges and op...

Beth Noveck, Director of GovLab Haris Biskos, Head of synAthina platform, City of Athens Georgia Gould, Leader of Camden Council Michael Donaldson, CTO and CIO, Barcelona City Council Cities are facing a number of problems, such as lack of trust between governments and society, hate crime, corruption, or economic and social inequality. Beth Noveck, Haris Biskos, Georgia Gould, and Michael Donaldso...

Kathy Peach, Head of CCID, Nesta David Baltaxe, Chief Intelligence Officer, Unanimous AI Yvonne McDermott-Rees, Professor of Law, Swansea University Daisy Tam, Assistant Professor, Hong Kong Baptist University Vito Trianni, Researcher, Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies of the Italian National Research Council (ISTC-CNR) The people behind four of the Nesta funded collective intellige...

How do you want your future to look like? What shape will it take? What skills do you need to get there? And who do you want to share it with? In this episode, Steve Cross, Maryam Pasha, Kajal Odedra and Tiernan Douieb discuss: How to build your own future (and the resilience to make it happen) Why survival kits are about skills and experiences, and not about rubbing twigs together What’s in their...

After seeing his own cells used to grow clumps of new neurons – essentially mini-brains – Philip Ball began to examine the concepts of identity and consciousness. Inspired by his book How to Grow a Human, this event delves into humanity's deep evolutionary past to look at how complex creatures like us emerged from single-celled life. This is a conversation guaranteed to challenge preconceptions an...

Are you curious about what our shared future holds? Join us for season 2 of Future Curious from Nesta. In this thought-provoking and chatty podcast, we bring together leading experts and radical thinkers to discuss the big issues that will affect our future, and what we can all do about them. Each week, Future Curious will bring new insights, challenge existing wisdom and explore new thinking into...

Hear from Michael Sanders, Executive Director, What Works Centre for Children’s Social Care and Susannah Hume, Associate Director, What Works at Kings’s College London as they discuss their revolutionary work that is changing the way governments and organisations around the world think.

With alternative visions and possibilities before us, we explore the connection between what the future could look like, and how largely science fiction has contributed to this vision. Through a distinctive mix of installations, talks and debates, FutureFest Lates offers audiences an opportunity to imagine and lay claim to a different vision of what might lie ahead. Recorded at Nesta’s first ‘Futu...

Inventing the Future: can sci-fi predict the shape of things to come? Listen to this recording from our first FutureFest Late as we were joined by the host of BBC Radio 4’s The Life Scientific, Jim Al-Khalili and presenter, writer and comedian Timandra Harkness. At a time of mounting anxiety about the powerful influence that technologists and scientists are exerting over our future, does fiction a...

Listen to a recording from our very first FutureFest Late with presenter, writer and comedian Timandra Harkness and BBC broadcaster and physicist Jim Al-Khalili. In this first highlight from the night, Jim Al-Khalili describes an apocalyptic vision of the future from his hard sci-fi novel Sunfall. What are FutureFest Lates? FutureFest Lates offer a taste of Futurefest. Through a distinctive mix of...

Listen to a recording from our very first FutureFest Late with presenter, writer and comedian Timandra Harkness and BBC broadcaster and physicist Jim Al-Khalili. In this second highlight from the night, Jim Al-Khalili talks about what Sci-Fi gets wrong about science and examines dystopian predictions for the future. What are FutureFest Lates? FutureFest Lates offer a taste of Futurefest. Through a...

Listen to a recording from our very first FutureFest Late with presenter, writer and comedian Timandra Harkness and BBC broadcaster and physicist Jim Al-Khalili. In this third highlight from the night, Jim Al-Khalili discusses quantum teleportation and the possibilities of scientific technology in the future. What are FutureFest Lates? FutureFest Lates offer a taste of Futurefest. Through a distin...

A provocative and inspiring look at the future of humanity and science from world-renowned scientist and bestselling author Martin Rees. Humanity has reached a critical moment. Our world is unsettled and rapidly changing, and we face existential risks over the next century. Various outcomes—good and bad—are possible. Yet our approach to the future is characterized by short-term thinking, polarizin...

If economic eras are defined by their most advanced form of production, then we are clearly living in one where knowledge plays a decisive role in the organisation of production, distribution and consumption. But the benefits of the knowledge economy are far from equally shared, so how can we make sure the knowledge economy is more inclusive? Joining Nigel Campbell to discuss this are Madeleine Ga...

Nesta Chief Executive Geoff Mulgan interviews philosopher and politician Roberto Mangabeira Unger on the Knowledge Economy. Roberto Unger is a co-author of Nesta's recent report Imagination unleashed: Democratising the knowledge economy - to read the report go to https://www.nesta.org.uk/report/imagination-unleashed/. Hear the full podcast featuring excerpts from this interview at https://soundclo...

Technology has transformed the way we communicate with each other but many people are still left feeling out of touch and lacking that sense of community. How can we change the way we interact to tackle the rise in loneliness? And how can we make sure technology is bringing people together instead of isolating people behind a screen? Joining Nesta’s Nigel Campbell to discuss this are Sanderson Jon...

Mis-prescribing of antibiotics is leading to a global rise in bacterial which are immune to all known treatments, and the need to act has become more urgent than ever. Yet across the world, use of antibiotics is still rather hit-and miss, leading to multiple rounds of drugs, each potentially creating new resistant strains. The Longitude Prize is leading the fight back - incentivising the developme...

Technology is inevitably changing the way we work, no matter what the industry. As with all forms of automation, there are pros and cons - but are we doing enough now to protect workers rights and ensure technology is creating a better working environment? Joining Nesta’s Nigel Campbell to discuss this are: Kate Bell, Head of the Rights, International, Social and Economics department at the Trades...

The 20th century saw huge leaps forward in life expectancy through innovations such as the NHS, major advances in drugs, and massive changes in lifestyle. In the 21st century, digital tech is set to take its place amongst these as the new force for improving our wellbeing and delivering healthcare. Artificial intelligence, algorithms offer the prospect of personalised care, better diagnosis, impro...

Listen back to highlights from Nesta Education 2019: Shaping the future, shifting the system.