2025-03-31-accounts

Annual report and accounts

For the year ended 31 March 2025

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About Nesta

Nesta is a research and innovation foundation that designs, tests and scales solutions for the biggest challenges of our time.

Driven by a vision to improve the lives of millions of people, our focus up to 2030 is on three missions: breaking the link between family background and life chances, halving obesity and cutting household carbon emissions.

We work with partners to develop highpotential solutions and test them as they evolve, drawing on expertise in qualitative and quantitative research, data science, behavioural science and design.

Once confident in the effectiveness of a solution, we take it to scale. We create national policy proposals, develop consumerfacing products and services, build and spin out commercial ventures and harness the power of the arts.

We work with two specialised units: BIT applies a deep understanding of human behaviour to help clients achieve their goals. Challenge Works designs and runs challenge prizes to spark innovation in science, technology and society.

Find out more at: www.nesta.org.uk

Layout: Green-Doe Graphic Design Ltd.

Annual report and accounts

For the year ended 31 March 2025

	Trustees	4
1.	Foreword: Ed Richards and Ravi Gurumurthy	5
**2. **	Strategic overview	7
**3. **	Financial review	31
**4. **	Objects	38
**5. **	Governance and management	39
**6. **	Independent auditor’s report	50
7.	Financial statements	53
**8. **	Reference and administrative details	93

Trustees

Ed Richards Nesta’s Chair

Founding Partner, Flint Global Ltd

Jeremy King Trustee Co-Founder and CEO at Ocean Orchestra

Jane Thompson Trustee Consumer Technology expert, co-founder of The Fusion Labs

Sarah Hunter Trustee

Catherine Brien Trustee

Technology and policy expert Partner and Managing and Non Executive Director at Director at AlixPartners ARIA, the Advanced Research and Invention Agency

Lord Richard Harrington Trustee

Helena Vinnicombe Trustee

Specialist in investment management for Charities

British politician and businessman

Richard Lloyd Owen Trustee

Chair at University of South Wales

Annual report and accounts for the year ended 31 March 2025

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Foreword

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1. Foreword: Ed Richards and Ravi Gurumurthy

For the past four years, Nesta’s purpose as a missiondriven organisation has been to design, test, and scale new solutions to society’s biggest problems focused on giving children a fairer start by age five, halving obesity in the UK, and drastically reducing home carbon emissions.

This revised strategy marked a substantial shift for Nesta, moving us from being primarily an enabler to an active agent of change, seeking to identify and scale innovative solutions through broad coalitions. Several years into this strategy, we are increasingly confident in our approach. Our recent strategy update is an evolution, not a wholesale change, reinforcing our core ambition while acknowledging new opportunities. We are putting even more weight behind our missions, deepening our policy work, and tooling up for scaling the solutions we’ve identified.

Third, we serve as a system shaper, influencing the policies and institutions crucial for embedding innovation and maximising impact. This role was particularly vital throughout the past year, as our Delivering clean heat report influenced the UK government’s warm homes plan, and our evidence-based advocacy, including our Blueprint for halving obesity, continued to shape national conversations around mandatory health targets for retailers and integrated early years policy.

Our three roles are most powerful when they work in concert, harnessing synergies to create exponential impact. Our policy work on health targets, for instance, is directly informed by our practical trials with major retailers, and our investments in clean energy solutions complement our advocacy for policy frameworks that accelerate decarbonisation. This mission-driven work is significantly strengthened by the contributions from within Nesta’s owned entities – our global consultancy, the Behavioural Insights Team (BIT), and Challenge Works, which designs and delivers high-impact challenge prizes. Together, we are a global powerhouse of applied research and innovation.

We continue to see our role as threefold, with each part reinforcing the others. First, we operate as an innovation partner, designing and testing solutions directly with organisations on the frontline. This year, we continued impactful collaborations with retailers on health strategies, with energy companies on innovative clean heat trials, and with local authorities on integrated family support, while also exploring how AI can support early childhood development.

Second, we act as a venture builder, actively building and investing in innovative startups. Our ventures, like Carno, making clean heat transitions easier, and Ogma, an AIpowered speech and language therapy assistant, have continued to grow.

Annual report and accounts for the year ended 31 March 2025

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Foreword

This year, BIT continued our impactful work, from developing and evaluating a global childhood obesity prevention initiative in multiple countries to pioneering research on promoting more effective use of insecticidetreated nets in Nigeria and Uganda. In education, we adapted flagship programmes like Grassroots and Tips by Text for the UK context, while also tackling school dropout rates in Morocco and absenteeism in Uruguay. Our work also extended to environment and sustainability, inclusive societies, and expanding international collaborations, including strategic support to the Abu Dhabi Government's Behavioural Science Group. We have also been at the forefront of exploring how AI can enhance research and solve social challenges, and we published worldclass thought leadership – such as through resources like the EAST framework, which has been translated into multiple languages. This year, we have also reviewed and updated our brand positioning and identity.

including the £1 million West Yorkshire Mayor’s Big Ideas Challenge to address health inequalities and the Smart Data Challenge Prize, designed to prototype innovative data use cases across the economy, alongside new partnerships with organisations like the Advanced Research and Innovation Agency (ARIA) and the Van Leer Foundation.

As an innovation agency, by our very nature, we are focused on the future and the possibilities that lie ahead. In the year to come, in each of our missions, we’ll continue to combine practical action through our experiments, prizes and venture building, with our crucial work to shape policies and institutions. We know the hardest part – driving impact at real scale – remains ahead of us, and it’s never been more important that, as a society, we collectively make progress on these issues and do whatever it takes to get there. We cannot do this alone, and we invite others who share our vision to join with us to create meaningful, lasting change.

been translated into multiple languages. This We cannot do this alone, and we invite others year, we have also reviewed and updated our who share our vision to join with us to create brand positioning and identity. meaningful, lasting change. Challenge Works has continued to demonstrate our global leadership in incentivising breakthrough innovation. This year saw the successful conclusion of major competitions such as the £8 million Longitude Prize on antimicrobial resistance (AMR), awarded for a rapid point-of-care test for bacterial infections, the inaugural £1 million Manchester Prize for AI solutions ~~t~~ T in energy, environment, and infrastructure, and the Aqualunar Challenge for lunar water Ed Richards Ravi Gurumurthy purification. We also launched new initiatives, Chair of Trustees Nesta Chief Executive

Ed Richards Ravi Gurumurthy Chair of Trustees Nesta Chief Executive

Annual report and accounts for the year ended 31 March 2025

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Strategic overview

2. Strategic overview

Nesta designs, tests and scales solutions to society’s biggest challenges.

We are now four years into our 10-year missiondriven strategy, focused on tackling three major societal challenges: a fairer start, a healthier life, and a sustainable future. We deliver on these missions through our three core roles: as an innovation partner, working with frontline organisations; as a venture builder, investing in and creating new ventures; and as a system shaper, influencing the policies and institutions that drive innovation.

To ensure our work is future-focused, our Discovery Hub systematically scans for emerging trends and technologies. We also work globally through our two consultancies, BIT and Challenge Works, which support our missions and keep Nesta at the forefront of innovation worldwide.

In 2024/25, we made significant progress across our missions, from launching the visit a heat pump service to advancing our work on a healthier food system and integrated family support. Our global ventures also saw major milestones, as Challenge Works awarded the £8 million Longitude Prize on AMR and Nesta Impact Investments delivered its largest-ever return.

Despite celebrating significant milestones, our progress in 2024/25 also highlighted the demanding scale of our 2030 missions. Key challenges include the need for a substantial increase in heat pump installations and a skilled workforce, slow progress in early years development outcomes, and the complexity of ensuring effective policy implementation within the food system. Our work is directly addressing these issues, but sustained effort and broad commitment will be essential.

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Strategic overview

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Applied research and policy

Working across the innovation lifecycle – Nesta as a powerhouse of applied methods

Nesta works across the innovation lifecycle to design, test and scale solutions to social challenges using our multidisciplinary expertise.

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To achieve our mission goals, we use our expertise in a diverse range of methods.

We use the arts to embed creative thinking directly into our programmes of work, channelling the unique powers of creativity and culture into our three missions, for example, supporting early childhood development through Play Together, Talk Together, a series of inclusive play installations launched with Leeds City Council.

We use data engineering to build and manage the foundations that enable us to turn data into products, information, insight and impact – advancing our understanding through projects like the Green Job Explorer, which offers new insights into the green labour market.

Analytical, data and technology skills are used to solve problems, test solutions and drive our missions forward, through deep expertise in data science methods and cutting-edge artificial intelligence techniques. In the past year, we have created a reliable, open-source dataset used for mapping heat pump suitability – which is now driving a local heat planning tool – and worked with government and industry partners to assess what it will take to achieve targets for healthier food.

We use design expertise to build and test digital products, public services and policies, for example, accelerating home decarbonisation by pioneering Clean Heat Neighbourhood models to coordinate street-by-street switching.

Software development enables us to design, validate and scale software solutions to help achieve our mission goals. Using these skills, one of the solutions we built was the Visit a heat pump service, which connects people interested in buying a heat pump with people in their local area that already own one, helping to build confidence and normalise this lowcarbon technology.

Enabling innovation

We use mixed methods research to design and evaluate Nesta’s portfolio of projects, providing confidence in the rigour behind our mission solutions. Our applied researchers work within and across Nesta’s mission teams in order to enable high-quality, impactful research throughout and across Nesta’s portfolio.

In order to effectively scale our work at Nesta, we need to understand, design, and test our ideas in a way that is underpinned by research best practices and guided by our innovative methodological expertise.

Launched in April 2025, the applied research and methods (ARM) strategic function was created in response to key recommendations from our three-year strategy review, which identified a need to bolster our inhouse technical talent and embed our methodological strengths more deeply within our mission-led work.

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Strategic overview

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ARM acts as a cross-functional convening body, maximising our social impact by ensuring that our world-class methods expertise is applied at the right time and in the right projects. By championing methodological

rigour and fostering a culture of continuous learning, ARM drives methodological rigour and a culture of continuous learning to generate high-quality, actionable insights and paths to scale for our missions.

Our key focus areas are:

• Effectively applying expertise : embedding and supporting methodological specialists within mission teams to ensure our work is built on robust evidence and cutting-edge analytical techniques from the outset.

• Empowering and amplifying talent : nurturing in-house expertise through a dedicated learning and development programme, equipping our teams with

Impact and progress

Since its launch, ARM has focused on establishing the foundations for its success. We are empowering methods experts who are embedded in key mission projects by providing direct support and strategic guidance to enhance their design and delivery. We mapped existing methodological strengths and identified priority areas for development, informing the design of a targeted learning programme that will empower all our staff to utilise methods more effectively in their work. We also initiated a review of our quality assurance and ethical oversight frameworks to ensure they are fit for an increasingly complex analytical and technological landscape, including the responsible use of AI.

the skills needed to tackle complex social challenges.

• Enhancing impact through strong oversight and governance : improving and embedding our oversight processes, including quality assurance, model challenge, and ethical reviews, to ensure our work is consistently rigorous, responsible and reliable as we deliver at pace.

Looking ahead

Over the coming year, ARM will move from foundation-building to full implementation. We will roll out a comprehensive upskilling programme to ensure Nesta remains at the forefront of innovation, with a focus on increasing the number of independent practitioners in critical skill areas like trials and evaluation, test and learn design approaches, and digital tools that scale, as well as emerging and high-impact fields such as AI engineering. Ultimately, ARM will enable Nesta to become a powerhouse for public sector talent, cultivating the deep methodological expertise required to generate breakthroughs, increase the scale of impact through methodological innovation, and deliver lasting social change.

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Strategic overview

Other strategic capabilities

Our work is also propelled by three specialist capabilities: collective intelligence, which mobilised public knowledge for climate action; futures and foresight, which identified emerging trends to steer strategy; and policy, which translated evidence into ambitious government reforms.

Collective intelligence

Through the Centre for Collective Intelligence, we have advanced the use of collective intelligence in climate action, citizen science, and AI governance. Highlights include publishing the UNTAPPED report with UNDP on collective intelligence for climate action, building the Zeitgeist digital deliberation platform to engage UK local residents in climate adaptation planning, mapping future scenarios for citizen science, and piloting community-led AI assurance tools in Türkiye to champion democratic technology governance.

Mission Discovery

Following the 2024 strategy update, our Discovery function was re-launched as ‘Mission Discovery’ to strengthen alignment with our missions. As part of this change, in February 2025, we launched a Scaling Accelerator to embed practical scaling skills, tools and mindsets into our work.

Policy

We continue to leverage Nesta's expertise to develop and promote ideas that could enable progress on our missions, supporting the UK’s governments in Westminster, Edinburgh and Cardiff to deliver better and more effectively. In the run-up to the UK general election in 2024, our UK 2040 Options project convened across sectors to identify the fundamental facts and key choices any next government would inherit on critical issues from productivity to education, and ideas that could help them make progress. We championed mission driven government, supporting government to apply theory in practice, built Be the Chancellor with the IFS to help crytallise fiscal choices, looked outward to other's successes through How to Make Good Things Happen and held our first Policy Live conference bringing together practitioners and policymakers on both the 'what' and the 'how' from tax reform to citizen deliberation.

Extending our impact

To extend our impact, we can also draw on the expertise and capabilities of our two entities: BIT, which applies a deep understanding of human behaviour to help clients achieve their goals and Challenge Works, which designs and runs challenge prizes to spark innovation in science, technology and society.

Mission Discovery continued to use futures and foresight to identify emerging trends important to Nesta’s work. We published Future Signals 2025, which shows the shape of things to come, cutting-edge data research on innovation in AI and digital technologies in the early years and we explored whether synthetic biology should be harnessed to tackle climate change.

Our pioneering residency scheme went from strength to strength, bringing in expertise around theory-based evaluation, public health, early years and AI.

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Strategic overview

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A fairer start

Our fairer start mission is that from 2030, every child has the same chance of developing to their full potential in the early years.

The early years are when the foundations of physical, emotional and social development are laid, as outlined in our explainer on this subject. But babies and young children growing up in poverty are more likely to miss out on the resources and experiences needed for healthy development.

This year, we worked across a number of areas.:

• To improve the effectiveness and access to integrated family services and support child development, we conducted a consultative and deliberative project to inform how the next era of integrated family support policy should be designed and pave the way to forming a coalition backing these recommendations.

growing up in low-income families. We continued our exploration of how AI could play a role in supporting the early years workforce through personalised support and professional training.

• We recognise the need to bolster the economic case for government spending on the early years. This year, we began to develop a quantitative model to simulate the impact of evidence-based interventions on the early years government target.

• Increasing access to effective parenting programmes can provide parents with the tools they need to support child development. Our practical work on parenting support continued to grow and diversify, with a range of collaborations underway.

• Families need financial security to provide an optimal early years environment at home. We began to develop and test solutions that maximise the impacts of alleviating financial pressures on the home environment.

• High-quality early education and care can play an important role in improving child development outcomes for those

Our ambition for a fairer start for every child by 2030 continues to face significant systemic challenges. While we've seen positive policy shifts, prevailing fiscal constraints create a challenging environment for large-scale investment in early years services. Furthermore, progress in key outcomes remains slow, with only a minimal increase in children reaching a good level of development in England and

a decrease in Scotland. We are also actively addressing data gaps, particularly in Wales, to ensure we have the robust evidence needed to track progress and inform targeted interventions effectively. These challenges underscore the critical need for continued advocacy and the iterative refinement of our approaches to integrated family support and financial security.

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Strategic overview

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2024/25 saw Nesta’s voice in the early years sector grow, publishing research on key policy issues and engaging with the UK government. The government’s Plan for Change has provided a positive policy environment for our mission, though fiscal constraints are highly challenging. The evidence base formed by our projects has led to significant interest from the UK government. We have seen regular engagement with government, such as through speakers from the Department for Education at our joint event on scaling up effective parenting support, and several Nesta staff members are (or were) on secondment to government.

We published our learnings from a longterm innovation partnership with three local authorities to develop, design and test ideas for how innovation could transform early years services. This included a data product to optimise and target the interventions of health visitors and early education quality advisors towards the highest need children.

To improve parenting support, we collaborated with partners on four different interventions: testing a lower-cost version of the book-sharing intervention Playtime with Books in two local authorities; working with the BBC and Sheffield University to improve and scale the BBC’s Tiny Happy People text messaging programme; assessing Tandem, an AI platform that creates personalised storybooks, for whether personalised stories offer a promising way to stimulate more meaningful child-caregiver interaction; and lastly, we are partnering with Art Fund and eight leading museums to develop a costeffective intervention for child self-regulation, utilising cultural institutions to expand the real estate for early years programmes.

We set out our plan for a one-year pilot in partnership with Camden Council to provide means-tested cash transfers (£500) and a ‘warm introduction’ to local services for families in Camden expecting a baby in 2025/26.

We started to develop a quantitative model to simulate the impact of evidence-based interventions on the early years government target. We also commissioned an audit of government spending (for England) to analyse the level, progressivity and composition of spend across education, health, welfare, and children’s services since 2010-11. We will use both to support our spending review recommendations, and plan to do a similar audit for Scotland next.

Activity in Wales

In Wales, we considered the opportunities offered by our new strategy. We worked with a high-profile and well-connected resident who engaged with a wide range of stakeholders to explore where there was the most opportunity for Nesta's strategic objectives to be pursued in Wales. Alongside this, we engaged with a number of Welsh government contacts to develop opportunities related to the expansion of Tiny Happy People into the Welsh language and build on data and insights from Flying Start to support our work on integrated family services across Great Britain. We also commissioned a spending audit in Wales to complement those done for England, which will provide a strong evidential foundation about the quantity and direction of early years funding. This will enable us to make evidence-informed recommendations for more optimal allocations.

Activity in Scotland

In Scotland, we've made significant progress in developing an innovation partnership with the Scottish Government on a project which aims to generate intelligence and insights about existing pregnancy and early years support in Scotland and make clear recommendations about what is required to change at the national and local level to strengthen and support practice and delivery to support improved early child outcomes.

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Strategic overview

[Looking ahead]

In 2025/26, we’ll continue to work to influence early years policy across the three nations.

• Our key focus for the year ahead is to advocate and support practice on the ground for the adoption of our policy framework for integration in the early years in England and Scotland, as well as push forward novel financial instruments to support this.

• We will work to influence policy and practice to transition towards a more ‘evidence-based’ family support offer with regard to parenting programmes.

• We will design and test solutions to increase take-up of benefits , ideally as part of integrated family support. We will also continue to develop a quantitative model to simulate the impact of evidencebased interventions on the early years government target.

• We will kick off work to identify the drivers of high-quality childcare .

[Case study: Mini Wonders]

For many families, early childhood experiences are rich with opportunities for learning and play, but not every child has the same access to these experiences. Nesta’s fairer start mission is working to change that, and our partnership with the Mini Wonders initiative is a prime example of our approach in action. This initiative, a collaborative project with leading UK museums and cultural institutions, aims to create new, evidencebased ways for families to support their young children's development.

The project began in 2024 with a grant of £1 million to fund innovation in the cultural sector. This investment was driven by a belief that museums and galleries, with their unique collections and spaces, can play a powerful role in early childhood development. Working with institutions such as the V&A and The Fitzwilliam Museum, the initiative focuses on leveraging their existing assets and expertise to benefit families with young children, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds.

interactive gallery sessions for babies and toddlers to digital tools that support parentchild interaction at home. This test-and-learn ethos is a core part of our mission, allowing us to identify and refine the most effective methods before scaling them up.

By the end of the 2024/25 financial year, the initiative successfully launched a number of innovative projects that began to collect valuable data on what works in different settings. This early work will be crucial in helping us to develop a robust blueprint for how cultural institutions across the UK can become more integrated into the early years ecosystem, ultimately ensuring more children, regardless of their background, have a fairer start in life. 1

We've been working to understand what truly works in this space. Our approach involves a blend of design thinking, robust evaluation, and a focus on scalability. The funded projects explore a range of activities, from

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Strategic overview

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A healthy life

Nesta’s healthy life mission aims to increase the number of healthy life years lived in the UK while narrowing health inequalities. Our mission goal is to halve the prevalence of obesity by 2030.

Our best chance of achieving our 2030 goal is through policy changes that alter the incentives of the food system and improve the food environment – how food is promoted, priced, displayed, and made available to us.

This year, we worked across a number of key areas.

• We built the case for change and prepared the ground for policy influence by creating a burning platform for obesity, ensuring that the government believes obesity is an issue worth tackling.

• We provided solutions by synthesising and articulating the best evidence for what it would take in practice to halve obesity and what the benefits would be.

• We worked directly with retailers and producers to pilot and trial examples of the changes we’d hope policymakers would bring in and built evidence that taking the necessary action is not bad for business or consumers.

• We shaped the attitudes of the small handful of decision-makers who hold the most influence, persuading those with the power to act to do so.

In 2024/25, Nesta cemented its position as an authoritative voice on health and obesity policy, making significant contributions to the evidence base with our Blueprint to halve obesity and How eating out contributes to our diets. We have received very positive feedback on the quality and rigour of our work, especially the blueprint toolkit, with evidence of widespread engagement across the health sector and with many stakeholders describing it as a ‘gold standard’ for research.

at scale will require sustained effort, close collaboration with industry, and ongoing vigilance to mitigate implementation risks. Our trials with commercial partners are designed to directly inform and de-risk this complex transition.

The Nourishing Britain report, a collaboration with Henry Dimbleby and Dr Dolly van Tulleken, was also well received, tackling the politics of changing health policy as well as the evidence. All three publications had a wide reach and have acted as a foundation on which to build interest and influence across government and the sector. We were able to achieve cut-through at these set-piece moments with influential media coverage, an extensive programme of stakeholder engagement, a successful webinar for the blueprint toolkit and high levels of engagement on social media.

However, the path to halving obesity by 2030 remains demanding. A key challenge lies in the complex journey from policy adoption to effective implementation within the food system. While milestones like the Healthy Food Standards are crucial, ensuring these policies translate into tangible changes in product portfolios and consumer behaviour

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Strategic overview

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We also experienced high levels of success with insider influencing, drawing on our research base, which has provided an important opportunity to influence current and future decision-making among senior politicians. Nesta presented the blueprint to health secretary Wes Streeting and chief medical officer Dr Chris Whitty, with positive responses, putting in motion the introduction of mandatory health targets for retailers.

Ravi’s appointments as co-chair of the Prevention Vision Working Group for the NHS 10-Year Health Plan and as a member of the Food Strategy Advisory Board have been significant successes for Nesta’s remit on health. These further endorsements of our credibility, which have enhanced the organisation’s ability to influence government decision-making on food and health policy.

We stepped up our parliamentary and sector engagement and are well embedded in the Obesity Health Alliance, with representation on the steering committee and invitations to benefit from opportunities and insights.

Our trials with commercial partners, including Asda, Starbucks, Deliveroo and KFC, are progressing well, along with the Reducing the Availability of Discretionary Items in Shops (RADISH) trial as part of the SALIENT consortium of academic trials to support healthy and sustainable food. We are also working with ShareAction to coordinate investor pressure on companies to improve the data they use to measure the healthiness of their sales. In 2024/25, we committed £1.1 million over three years to ShareAction to support their work mobilising investor pressure on food and

beverage companies to improve the healthiness of their product portfolios. This significant, multi-year grant reflects our strategic focus on shifting the food environment through upstream levers, including capital markets. Through the partnership, we are working alongside ShareAction to coordinate investor engagement to drive companies to report and set health targets. We have already seen early signs of impact through Nestlé, which is moving to an industry-leading approach to measuring the healthiness of the products it sells, which they attributed to ShareAction’s work.

Activity in Wales

In Wales, we addressed a key issue with current obesity stats by adjusting selfreported data to approximate professionallymeasured data, showing that obesity rates in Wales are higher than previously estimated and more than in any other nation in the UK. Building on Nesta’s Blueprint for halving obesity, we published our recommendations for 2026-2030 Senedd, encouraging all party manifestos to prioritise tackling obesity. These included specific recommendations for new policy restricting all price promotions on food and drinks high in fat, sugar, or salt (HFSS) in retail and out-of-home settings and to collaborate with UK governments to introduce mandatory health targets for the biggest retailers. We continued to engage with senior policymakers in Wales, responded to the Welsh government’s consultation on The Food (Promotion and Placement) (Wales) Regulations, and gave written and oral evidence to the Senedd Health and Social Care Committee’s inquiry into the prevention of ill health – obesity.

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Strategic overview

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Activity in Scotland

Our policy work has been instrumental, with a focus on shaping consultations on the Good Food Nation Bill and regulations of highfat, sugar and salt (HFSS) foods. We have facilitated a series of workshops with the Scottish Government, Public Health Scotland and Food Standards Scotland (FSS) to inform the development of the new national Diet and Healthy Weight Implementation Plan. On the ground, we’ve developed innovative solutions to improve the food environment. This included

[Looking ahead]

In 2025/26, we will continue to focus on policy change as the most impactful route to deliver our mission goal. We will:

• seek to shape the implementation of the healthy food standard announced in the government’s 10-Year Health Plan, which includes Nesta’s policy proposal for health targets for supermarkets.

• seek to shape the outcome and delivery of the National Food Strategy .

• demonstrate the impact of obesity on our economy and productivity through a major piece of economic modelling.

delivering a planning residency to explore how the planning system can be used to promote healthier food choices. In partnership with FSS, we’ve published a comprehensive out-of-home calorie sampling project, and our research with the Food and Drink Federation Scotland has identified opportunities for reformulation within the retail supply chain. We are also delivering a new partnership project with the Scottish Government, FSS, and Public Health Scotland, which is piloting trials on the Deliveroo platform.

• progress our commercial partnerships with Starbucks, Deliveroo, Asda and KFC, with the ambition to publicise the results.

• publish evidence on the impact of advertising on our diets and explore policy options to reduce this impact.

• influence Scottish and Welsh policymakers ahead of the Scottish and Welsh elections in 2026.

• ramp up the pressure on the UK and Scottish governments to act on obesity through multiple routes, including a partnership with the youth advocacy group Bite Back.

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Strategic overview

[Case study: ShareAction]

At Nesta, our healthy life mission is focused on helping people eat better. One of the key ways we're achieving this is by influencing the food environment, and we believe that a powerful lever for change lies in the world of investment.

In March 2024, we began a partnership with ShareAction, a leading responsible investment charity, to support and scale their work in this area. Our collaboration, which began in March 2024, involves providing a grant to ShareAction to help them encourage institutional investors to engage with food and drink companies on issues of health and nutrition. ShareAction's work is driven

by a powerful idea: that if we can get major investors – who collectively hold trillions of dollars in assets – to consider a company's nutritional impact as a financial risk, we can drive significant change.

This initiative provides a new, impactful route to achieving our mission. Rather than focusing solely on consumer-facing interventions or direct policy change, we are working to shift the incentives for companies at a fundamental level. By supporting ShareAction's efforts, we are helping to ensure that the health and nutritional quality of products becomes a core concern for investors, not just a secondary issue. This collaboration is crucial for building a lasting and effective way to improve the health of the UK's diet.

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Strategic overview

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A sustainable future

The goal of our sustainable future mission is to reduce household carbon emissions by 30% from 2019 figures by 2030. Homes are the third largest producer of greenhouse gas emissions after transport and business. By changing the way we heat them, we can drastically reduce the amount of carbon dioxide produced in the UK.

Our work is focused on increasing the uptake of low-carbon heating, primarily heat pumps.

This year, we worked across a number of key areas to support this aim.

• Making low-carbon more affordable will be critical to increasing uptake. Electricity bills are currently inflated by levies collected to pay for legacy renewable energy schemes and energy efficiency upgrades, reducing the incentive for people to switch away from gas. We modelled ways to shift these levies while protecting consumers.

support stories about reducing domestic carbon emissions.

• We started exploring ways to coordinate the switch at a local area level – testing whether clean heat neighbourhood schemes could help more households make the switch to low-carbon heating more quickly.

• A successful transition relies on having a heating workforce with the right skills . We carried out the largest survey of heat pump installers to date and launched a scheme to help newly-trained installers build their skills more quickly.

• To increase consumer awareness and confidence in heat pumps, we launched an information website, a service to help people visit heat pumps in homes like theirs and provided resources to broadcasters to

While we celebrated significant milestones in 2024/25, our progress also highlighted the scale of the challenge to meet our 2030 mission. Key hurdles include the significant step-change required in heat pump installation rates, which need to double annually to meet our 2027 targets. Critical areas of focus include ensuring heat pumps are consistently cheaper to run than gas boilers and increasing public readiness (currently 23% of owner-occupiers are likely to install a heat pump vs a 66% target). Addressing the substantial gap in the skilled installer workforce is also a key focus, as there are currently 8,800 skilled installers vs a target of 40,000 by 2027. Our work in levy reform,

installer training, and public engagement is directly addressing these challenges, but sustained effort and broad sectoral commitment will be essential.

2024/25 saw Nesta’s reputation and credibility in home decarbonisation grow further as we delivered projects at the forefront of policy, industry and consumer appeal. It was a pivotal year for heat policy, with the change in UK government and the launch of Labour’s Clean Power 2030 mission. Throughout all of this, we were very much in a position of influence. The depth and breadth of our projects and outputs have led to interest from UK and devolved governments, and created further inroads with installers and manufacturers.

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Strategic overview

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The Delivering clean heat report, which launched shortly after the general election, was well received by policymakers in government and the wider sector. Feedback from civil servants suggested that our work on addressing obstacles to heat pump adoption in the planning system influenced the policy changes to ease the process.

We launched Visit a heat pump, a free, national service that connects heat pump owners with those interested in having their own installed. See the boxed-out case study for further information.

Activity in Wales

In Wales, we saw significant success in influencing the content of the Welsh government’s heat strategy, which extensively cited Nesta’s evidence in making the case for heat pumps as the preferred technology for homes. We similarly played a major role in the Wales Net Zero 2035 group, producing evidence for Welsh Labour and Plaid Cymru on the implications of a more ambitious net-zero target for buildings in Wales. We contributed significantly to consultations around the abolition of the three metre planning rule, and raised the profile of this issue amongst stakeholders and within the Senedd. We also held workshops in Wales around the wider clean heat neighbourhoods project, and have been actively developing on-the-ground partnerships to test our blueprint, with notable interest from the Welsh government.

[Looking ahead]

In 2025/26, we’ll continue to work intensively across policy, industry and consumers to maximise engagement with our work, with a particular focus on scaling opportunities.

• Our key focus for this year is to convene agreement and a commitment for levy reform , through the release of modelling to show how it can be done fairly.

Activity in Scotland

In Scotland, we've made significant strides in building relationships with key stakeholders, including Ministers and shadow party spokespeople, to influence government policy on clean heat and the forthcoming Heat in Buildings Bill. We have facilitated conversations across the sector to inform the development of a Scottish Policy Plan for Heat, which sets out a roadmap for decarbonising home heating in Scotland. We've also successfully raised the profile of clean heating through speaking roles at major industry and political events, including a heat pump skills panel at a Holyrood conference, a closing summation at Scottish Enterprise’s Clean Heat 2025, and a clean heating keynote with the Minister at the All-Energy trade fair. Building on our on-the-ground work, we've launched a new partnership project with SNIPEFF (The Scottish and Northern Ireland Plumbing Employers Federation) called Start at Home, which aims to get 18 heat pumps fitted in installers’ homes to boost industry skills and confidence. This active development of our partnerships to test our blueprint has already garnered significant interest from key stakeholders across Scotland.

• We’ll develop pilot projects for clean heat neighbourhoods with partners around the UK.

• We’ll look to scale our Start at home trial at a national level.

• We’ll develop work on inclusion in the heat transition , ensuring households in all tenures and income brackets have access to a good experience with low-carbon heating.

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Strategic overview

[Case study: Visit a heat pump]

Over the past year, Nesta has been working to address one of the biggest barriers to the take-up of heat pumps: a lack of public visibility and understanding. While heat pumps are crucial for decarbonising our homes, most people in the UK have never seen one. Our Visit a heat pump project was designed to tackle this head on, creating a unique service to connect prospective buyers with current heat pump owners in their local area, allowing them to see the technology in a real-world setting.

As of 7 April 2025, 912 people – from Inverness to the Isle of Wight, and Neyland to Norwich – had registered to host events. Almost 1,700 people had booked to visit a heat pump and 47 installers used it to showcase their work. The marketing campaign was seen by nearly 3 million people (based on impressions across social media platforms), and the service has been covered extensively across national media. The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero’s (DESNZ’s) 2025 advertising campaign for the boiler upgrade scheme was influenced by this work.

We've seen significant success in our first year by focusing on a few key areas:

• Building a nationwide host network : we launched a national platform, VisitAHeatPump.com, and rapidly recruited a network that has grown to include heat pump ‘hotspots’ in London, central Scotland, and East Anglia, making it easier for people to find a host nearby.

• Driving public engagement : the service has proven effective in generating interest and building consumer confidence, giving thousands of prospective buyers a chance to see a heat pump in action and ask questions directly to a trusted source.

• Providing direct, practical evidence : the project provides a tangible way to showcase the reality of living with a heat pump. By connecting people to real users, we are providing practical, first-hand evidence that complements our broader research findings, such as the fact that 81% of heat pump owners are as satisfied or more satisfied than they were with their old heating system.

• Shifting social norms : by increasing the visibility of heat pumps and creating positive, personal encounters, the service is working to normalise the technology and encourage a shift away from fossil fuelbased heating systems.

Our goal is to continue expanding this service, making it a routine part of the decisionmaking process for anyone considering a lowcarbon heating system. We're proud to have created a service that is directly helping to accelerate the transition to cleaner heating.

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Strategic overview

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Enterprises

BIT

BIT is a global research and innovation consultancy which uses deep understanding of human behaviour to improve people's lives. We have offices in seven countries around the world, and operate in many more. We have a long track record of delivering impact that lasts – from transforming national policy to unlocking better outcomes on the ground – and we’re proud of the way we position people at the heart of change.

Over the past year, BIT teams around the world have made meaningful and measurable improvements to healthcare provision, schools and education, the environment and the workplace. We’ve built governments’ capacity to develop evidence-based and agile policies and improve public services in a people-centred, responsive fashion. We’ve continued to pursue new ways of solving social problems, in particular, working at the frontier of AI and social science.

Refreshed identity

wide range of expertise we have beyond behavioural science. This includes building capacity in our partners to deliver agile and responsive innovation programmes, promoting deliberative democracy, the use of reliable evidence, and rapid and lowcost evaluations. Informally, our President Emeritus, David Halpern, has often suggested that BIT stands for ‘behaviour, innovation and testing’.

In the past year, we reviewed our brand positioning to ensure we maintain competitiveness in relation to our competitors. As part of this, we refreshed our visual identity and applied it across major touchpoints, including our website. We shifted our emphasis from ‘The Behavioural Insights Team’ to ‘BIT’ to give more space for the

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Strategic overview

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Global impact

Health and wellbeing

A highlight of the year was the kick-off of our work with Novo Nordisk, developing and evaluating a global childhood obesity prevention initiative that is tackling childhood obesity in disadvantaged urban communities worldwide. We’re working in Japan, Spain, France, South Africa, Brazil, and Canada to roll out and evaluate evidence-informed childhood obesity prevention programmes focused on physical activity and healthy eating.

We’re also proud of our collaboration with the Malaria Consortium, who we are working with to conduct community-based research that will help us understand low usage rates of insecticide-treated nets in Nigeria and Uganda, and develop and pilot solutions to encourage more effective use. Malaria remains one of the deadliest infectious diseases in the world, claiming over 600,000 lives annually, so this work has the chance of making a big difference.

Education

Our UK education team has been adapting a couple of flagship programmes previously developed in the US, and running randomised controlled trials to test their effectiveness in the UK. The first is the Grassroots programme, where we are working in more than 100 schools to empower pupils to overcome conflict and positively affect their school climate. The second is our Tips by text programme, helping parents in the UK to support the development of language, literacy, numeracy and socio-emotional skills of young children aged four to five. We’re excited to see the effectiveness of these two approaches, translated to the UK context.

BIT France delivered an ambitious project to reduce school dropouts and improve wellbeing in Moroccan middle schools. Working in partnership with the United

Nations Development Programme and the Moroccan Ministry of Education, our team developed, and pre-tested learning modules designed to help pupils develop social and emotional skills, which were rolled out in more than 80 middle schools. A large-scale evaluation is being conducted to measure the programme’s effects on drop-out rates, academic performance, wellbeing, and overall school atmosphere.

Meanwhile, our Latin America and Caribbean team, in partnership with Plan Ceibal, concluded a project tackling high rates of absenteeism at primary schools in Uruguay by supporting parental engagement and making data about individual pupils’ absences easily available to teachers. We conducted a randomised field experiment involving over 28,000 students and 210 schools and found that our programme reduced absences by six percent. Following our initial trial, the programme is now being scaled to the entire country with the population that most benefited from the intervention.

Environment and sustainability

We delivered a wide range of projects linked to the environment and promoting more sustainable behaviours, including a collaboration between BIT’s US and Canada teams and Uber’s One Less Car programme, designed to encourage more walking and cycling for short journeys and reduce the number of car journeys with single passengers. Our role was to evaluate the effectiveness of the scheme, which was run across seven North American cities, and provide recommendations for the transition to a car-light, multi-modal transport environment. In the UK, we’ve delivered research and strategic thought leadership on the role of public engagement and communications in delivering net zero and designing climate policy that is supported by the public.

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Strategic overview

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Inclusive and cohesive societies

Building on BIT’s extensive experience supporting equality and diversity at work, BIT’s Singapore team has helped shape the future of flexible working in Singapore, delivering policy advice and practical guidelines that led to the introduction of a new government policy around employees’ entitlement to request flexible work arrangements. This is a big step forward for an inclusive workplace in Singapore.

Meanwhile, BIT Australia produced a report, funded by the non-partisan Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law, on the factors that make people susceptible to misinformation and developed an evidence-based framework for countering misinformation, in particular relating to refugees and migrants.

Thought leadership and innovation

We continue to deliver world-class research and thought leadership, sharing our understanding of how humans behave and make decisions. Over the past year, our chief behavioural scientist, Dr Michael Hallsworth, published his vision for the future of behavioural science in our Four Big Shifts series. We also refreshed EAST, one of our classic frameworks that continues to be a keystone resource for behavioural scientists. Originally published in 2014, our 2024 update reflects a decade of advancements in behavioural science.

We had two papers accepted for academic publication over the past year. In October, BIT’s work developing and testing a behaviourally-informed chatbot to promote Covid-19 vaccine uptake in Argentina was featured in the journal Nature Human Behaviour . In March, our paper on the results of two UK-wide randomised controlled trials

International collaborations

BIT’s strategic and operational support to the Behavioural Science Group at the Abu Dhabi Government continues, with recent highlights including an impact evaluation and campaign to promote physical activity for Active Abu Dhabi, behavioural research to enhance workplace inclusion for people of determination, a white paper analysing public transport behaviours in the UAE, and an expanding portfolio of health initiatives with the Abu Dhabi Public Health Authority, the UAE Ministry of Health and Prevention, and PureHealth, focusing on nutrition strategy, obesity, and AMR.

refining behavioural-science-informed text message notifications on Covid vaccine eligibility was accepted for publication in the same journal. We take great pride when our work is featured in academic journals, as it is a strong endorsement of the high quality of our research.

And finally, like most organisations, we have been exploring AI: how it can make our research more effective; how we can incorporate AI into our solutions to social and behavioural challenges; and how behavioural science can help build positive usage models for AI, as it becomes increasingly integrated into our social fabric. One project in Canada used an innovative, empirical approach to unpack potential harms from AI, working with the Ontario Securities Commission to understand people’s susceptibility to AIenhanced online fraud and explore solutions to protect retail investors.

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Strategic overview

[Looking ahead]

We look forward to building on our current momentum over the months and years ahead. A major upcoming milestone was the BX2025 conference, which we co-hosted in Abu Dhabi on 30 April and 1 May. The event brought together an international cohort of policymakers, academics and practitioners in

[Case study: Four Big Shifts]

For the past fifteen years, BIT has shown how using behavioural science can improve outcomes for individuals, governments, and businesses, but we believe we’ve only scratched the surface of what can be achieved. Using our partnership with Nesta, we’ve been working to embed behavioural science, use of reliable evidence and evaluation within a broader offer that also uses approaches like systems thinking, design principles, and artificial intelligence.

At the same time, we are creating new ways of using behavioural science, prioritising Four Big Shifts in behavioural science to help us deliver greater impact. These are:

• Working with complexity and systems : combining behavioural science with complex adaptive systems thinking unlocks opportunities for specific changes to have widespread effects and to anticipate and manage those changes.

• Focusing on the social drivers of behaviour : people are embedded in social relationships as they make decisions; culture and identity shape the choices available to us. To deliver successful change, we need to focus on how cultures, identities, and relationships underpin behaviour.

behavioural science, with a particular focus for this year’s event on behavioural science in the Middle East and other non-WEIRD contexts. BIT has hosted this conference several times previously in different regions around the world, starting in Sydney in 2014, and we believe it's the biggest – and best – conference of its kind anywhere.

• Getting more iterative and adaptive : embodying our test-and-learn ethos, we ~~a~~ aim for continual improvement rather than taking a linear approach to one-off trials that can ignore the complexity of fluctuating or unpredictable situations. We are careful to take into account from the start the factors that lead to successful scaling.

• Being more participatory : consultation, deliberation, co-design and co-creation have always been important parts of our work, but we are pushing these further as technology and recent advances in AI open up new opportunities for behavioural science.

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Based on our forays so far, we are enormously excited about the impact incorporating these Four Big Shifts will have on our work. Our goal has always been to improve outcomes in society, using rigour, pragmatism, and the best approaches available. We’re remaining true to that vision – but we’re giving it more firepower.

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Strategic overview

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Challenge Works

Challenge Works, a part of Nesta, is a global leader in the design and delivery of high-impact challenge prizes that incentivise cutting-edge innovation for social good. Over the past 10 years, we’ve designed and delivered approximately 100 prizes with a total prize pot of £258.7 million.

Winners announced this year

accelerates the development of advanced materials from decades to one day. These advanced materials are essential to modern life, for example, improving the energy density of batteries in electric vehicles to increase their range.

Longitude Prize on AMR

The £8 million Longitude Prize was awarded after a decade-long competition to find new tools to tackle the rising threat of AMR. It was awarded for a point-of-care test that rapidly detects whether an infection is caused by bacteria and identifies the right antibiotics to treat it. The test takes 45 minutes, compared to the three days traditional methods take. See the boxed-out case study for more information.

The second round of the Manchester Prize was launched in December 2024 and is focused on the application of AI to speed up the adoption of clean energy systems.

The Aqualunar Challenge

A ‘lunar microwave’ won the UK Space Agency’s Aqualunar Challenge. The £1.2 million international prize, which was funded by the UK Space Agency’s International Bilateral Fund and delivered in collaboration with the Canadian Space Agency, aimed to drive the development of innovative technologies that make human habitation on the Moon viable by purifying water buried beneath the lunar surface.

Manchester Prize

Initiated by the UK Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), the £1 million Manchester Prize sought innovative AI solutions addressing major societal challenges relating to energy, environment and infrastructure. The inaugural Manchester Prize was won by AI-driven technology, which

Prizes launched this year

Smart Data Challenge Prize

Funded by the Department for Business and Trade, the prize is designed to identify and develop smart data use cases across the economy and how these might work in practice. It gives innovators the opportunity to prototype their solutions in a specially created Data Sandbox, generating insight into the opportunities and the challenges of smart data-powered innovation across sectors, including retail, finance, property, energy and transport.

The West Yorkshire Mayor’s Big Ideas Challenge

Launched in February 2025, the challenge called on small and medium-sized firms to accelerate innovative solutions, products or services to overcome health inequalities among communities in West Yorkshire. The solutions are aiming to increase the years of life that people live in good health in West Yorkshire and ultimately for life expectancy to align with the national average.

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Strategic overview

New partnerships secured this year

We secured a new partnership with the Advanced Research and Innovation Agency (ARIA), looking at robot dexterity. This programme aims to direct research and development towards building robots capable of using tools and building other robots.

Case study: Longitude Prize on AMR

For decades, the rise of AMR has been a ticking clock, threatening to send us back to an era where a simple infection could be a death sentence. The challenge was clear: we needed a rapid, accurate diagnostic test that could tell doctors if an antibiotic was truly needed. The Longitude Prize on AMR was a multi-year, £8 million prize designed to spur this exact innovation.

The prize incentivised innovators to develop a point-of-care diagnostic test that would transform the treatment of bacterial infections. The goal was to overcome the significant market and scientific barriers that had previously held back progress. The prize attracted entries from around the world, pushing the boundaries of what was possible in diagnostics.

We have also partnered with the Van Leer Foundation to develop a challenge prize focused on improving the wellbeing of parents and caregivers of young children in underserved communities in Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, Kenya, Uganda, Senegal, Ethiopia, Indonesia and the Philippines.

The culmination of this groundbreaking competition came in 2024, when Sysmex Astrego was crowned the winner for their PA100 AST System. This technology, developed in Sweden, is a rapid and simple-to-use diagnostic test that can identify a bacterial infection and determine which antibiotic will be most effective in under an hour.

The impact of this prize is far-reaching. By successfully identifying and rewarding a solution that can be used directly at the point of care, we have helped to usher in a new era of targeted antibiotic treatment. The PA100 AST System has the potential to prevent the unnecessary prescription of antibiotics, dramatically slowing the development of AMR and saving countless lives around the world. It stands as a powerful testament to the value of challenge prizes in tackling some of society's most complex problems.

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Strategic overview

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Investments

Nesta Impact Investments (NII) delivered a strong performance this year, making seven new investments into ‘mission aligned’ companies: Resi (home renovation services); Renewabl (renewable energy procurement services); Anaphite (battery manufacturing process technology); Descycle (e-waste reprocessing technology); Ambrosia Bio (allulose, sugar alternative manufacturing technology); Nandi Proteins (food ingredients technology); and Gaia Learning (hybrid educational provision for neurodivergent children).

Additionally, we made follow-on investments into six portfolio companies, further supporting their commercialisation activities: BibliU; Mixergy; Third Space Learning; Skin Analytics; Koru Kids; and Oxford Medical Products. In total, we deployed £5.4 million throughout the course of the year.

Towards the end of 2024/25, Nesta made the decision to stop making new investments through NII, which resulted in a reorganisation of the team, with a new primary focus upon generating returns from the existing portfolio of c.40 direct investment assets. Follow-on capital of up to £7 million has been made available to the NII team to help ensure returns to Nesta are maximised over the next three to five years.

During the year, we also oversaw £19.0 million of realisations from our existing portfolio, the highlight of which was VISA Inc.’s acquisition of Featurespace Ltd. This generated Nesta’s single largest return from its venture investing activity since inception at £18.7 million, with up to £2.4 million further consideration possible over the next 18 months. We first invested in Featurespace in 2010, becoming its first institutional investor and supporting it over five rounds of equity funding as it commercialised its world-leading financial fraud detection offering.

Key performance indicators and impact measurement

The Board approves a specific annual drawdown amount from the endowment fund for our charitable activities, and we successfully managed our expenditure to align with this planned budget. This careful stewardship ensures that we can continue to deploy our resources effectively towards our charitable objectives while maintaining the health of the endowment for future impact.

For the financial year 2024/25, a primary key performance indicator for Nesta focused on our financial stewardship. As a charity that operates as part of a group structure, largely funded by the endowment from The Nesta Trust, effectively managing our resources is paramount to our long-term sustainability.

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Strategic overview

Beyond financial performance, achieving our strategic goals and demonstrating tangible impact are central to our mission. We recognise the importance of robustly measuring and reporting on the difference we make in the world. In line with this, in

2024/25 we began developing and refining our approach to impact measurement. This framework is directly aligned with our longterm strategy, which sets a clear vision for change by the target year of 2030.

The framework includes:.

• Defining intermediate goals : we are establishing key milestones that need to be achieved by 2027 to ensure our missions are on track.

• Developing a layered measurement framework : this framework integrates progress towards these intermediate goals, portfolio-level insights on our activities,

and in-depth case studies of flagship projects. This layered approach is designed to reflect the long-term and complex nature of the change we aim to achieve.

• Iterative learning and refinement : our process is collaborative and adaptive, allowing us to test and learn as we build formal processes for our full impact reporting in the future.

Further details on our developing impact measurement framework, including specific progress indicators for each mission, will be formally integrated into future annual reports.

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Strategic overview

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Mission Studio

This year marked a major milestone for Mission Studio: the full transition from an external partnership model to an inhouse venture studio fully embedded within Nesta. Over the course of the year, we hired and built out the internal team, developed our core operating model and playbook, ran our first venture design sprints, and began building the first startups to emerge from this new structure.

We hired the key members of the in-house venture studio over the course of the year, including design, venture building, technical and operational expertise, taking the studio to ten permanent staff.

We designed and launched two end-to-end venture design sprints. This delivered three advanced and validated startup concepts by March 2025, two of which moved into the build phase (a six-month process where we hire a founder(s) and transform validated venture concepts into fully operational startups, rapidly developing products, teams and business models to launch into the market).

• Mendara is the first scalable, community> Nibblr empowers food and beverage powered mental health platform providing teams to build better products – healthier, care after traumatic events – starting smarter and faster – through one intelligent with birth trauma. The minimum viable operating system. This year, we onboarded product has already been used by over a founder. 100 people, with 57% of users returning for subsequent sessions.

In parallel, we maintained momentum across the existing portfolio of nine spunout ventures developed under our original partnership with Founders Factory. Several have made significant progress:

• Furbnow (home retrofit) surpassed £600,000 annual revenue , with a pipeline of £10.4 million and contracts across multiple local authorities and energy providers in the build-up to raising a seed round in 2025/26.

by word-of-mouth. They now support shopping integration with Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury’s.

• Renbee (clean tech sales enablement) secured a white-label contract with the Installation Assurance Authority, enabling access to over 200 installer businesses .

• Mealia (healthy meal planning) grew to 30,000 users , with 40% of growth driven

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Strategic overview

At the same time, we continued to provide hands-on support to ventures facing early-stage challenges (whether around commercial traction, funding environment, or product-market fit) and made targeted follow-on investments to enable them to unlock growth or extend runway.

Beyond delivery, we also invested heavily in the Studio’s long-term infrastructure. We developed and tested the first version of our playbook through hands-on testing and learning, developed a model for internal founder recruitment, launched an externalfacing rebrand, and built a technical infrastructure that allows rapid prototyping

and real-world testing of startup concepts. We believe this lays the foundations for future scale for the Studio, and readies us to deliver four to five completely new startup concepts in the next financial year.

As we close the year, Mission Studio has demonstrated its ability to build novel, investable ventures aligned with Nesta’s missions. We’ve moved from a start-up team to a fully-functioning studio. With the first inhouse ventures now in build, and a portfolio of alumni showing early signs of breakout success, we are well-positioned to scale impact and returns over the next few years.

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Financial review

3. Financial review

During the year ended 31 March 2025, the Group comprised:

• Nesta, the main operating charity through which all charitable activity is undertaken

• The Nesta Trust, a charitable trust which holds all the investment assets invested to fund the charitable activities of Nesta in advancing the objects of the Trust

• Nesta Enterprises Limited, incorporated as a trading subsidiary for non-primary purpose trading

• Behavioural Insights Limited (BIT), which is itself a group with seven subsidiaries

• Four limited liability partnerships – Nesta Investment Management LLP, NII2 Special Partner LLP, Nesta Arts Impact LLP, Nesta Arts and Culture Impact LLP

• Eight other companies – Nesta GP Limited, Nesta GP2 Limited, Nesta PRI Limited, Cultural Impact Development Loans Limited (company dissolved post year-end), Nesta Partners Limited, Nesta Challenges, Arts and Culture Finance, Arts & Culture Finance Partners Limited

• Nesta US Inc, which is registered in the United States, and allowed for receipt of a grant from a US funder

On 31 July 2024, Nesta Arts Impact LLP, Nesta Arts and Culture Impact LLP, Arts and Culture Finance and Arts & Culture Finance Partners Limited ceased to be members of the Group.

Note 15 provides further information on all Group entities.

A number of subsidiaries have been set up to manage Nesta’s investing and fund management related activities. This enables Nesta to manage and invest funds on behalf of its investment partners in compliance with the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) requirements.

The Nesta Trust provided funding to Nesta of £35.4 million (2024: £29.6 million) during the year, of which £22.4 million (2024: £21.3 million) was applied to charitable operating activities and £13.0 million (2024: £8.3 million) committed in relation to the Impact Investment Fund and other programme-related investments.

Funding made available by The Nesta Trust does not constitute a commitment until a drawdown is made. The assets of the Trust are held as an expendable endowment and the Trust is therefore able to fund charitable activity beyond the returns it generates during the year.

The categories defined by the trustees for the purposes of organisational management are: applied research and policy, a fairer start, a healthy life, a sustainable future, enterprises, investments and projects pre strategy 2020 (2024: a fairer start, a healthy life, a sustainable future, central programmes and devolved nations, committed programme delivery, enterprises, investments in furtherance of the Group's charitable objectives and practices). Last year's categories have been restated here so they can be easily compared with the updated categories for the year end 31 March 2025. Total income and expenditure for 2024 has not changed.

Total Group income for the year was £55.3 million (2024: £52.4 million). Charitable income of £11.9 million (2024: £13.3 million) was recognised in addition to the £15.0 million (2024: £14.2 million) of investment income and £28.4 million (2024: £24.9 million) of other income. Charitable income is predominantly in the form of partnership funding where Nesta’s expertise in programme design and project management is combined with the funding capacity of other typically larger organisations. Other income consists of rental income, trading income, fund management receipts and the excess of gain on investment of Arts subsidiaries over previously recorded investment losses.

The results of the Group consolidate all subsidiary undertakings as well as The Nesta Trust and the joint venture in Mission Studio (FFN JV Limited).

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Financial review

Total Group expenditure was £73.6 million (2024: £65.7 million), of which £50.4 million (2024: £42.1 million) was spent on charitable activities, £23.0 million (2024: £23.1 million) on trading activities and £0.2 million (2024: £0.5 million) on managing endowment assets held by The Nesta Trust and impact investment funds held by Nesta. Grant expenditure commitments totalled £12.5 million (2024: £5.2 million) with recipients of grants over £50,000 detailed in Note 7b.

Support costs of £17.7 million (2024: £18.9 million) relate to communications and corporate services activities and are allocated to programme areas as shown in Note 7a.

Net gains on investments for financial return was £14.0 million (2024: £20.0 million).

The valuation of BIT has seen an uplift of £0.8 million for the year to 31 March 2025 (impairment of £4.4 million for the year to 31 March 2024). The previous impairment was due to several factors, including staff turnover and challenges in the economic climate. In the year to 31 March 2025, BIT has strengthened its position by being awarded new contracts and is now in a much more robust position.

Going concern

As Nesta is able to draw down cash from The Nesta Trust as required within the approved funding envelope, the trustees have concluded that there is a reasonable expectation that the Group has adequate resources to continue activities for the foreseeable future and no material uncertainties have been identified in respect of going concern.

The trustees have reviewed the current cash position of the Group alongside forecasts for the coming financial year and beyond and have concluded that the Group has adequate resources to cover the forecast expenditure for at least 12 months from the approval of these financial statements. Further detail can be found in the accounts of each subsidiary.

They have therefore adopted the going concern basis in preparing the financial statements.

As part of our ongoing financial review, we reassessed the classification of our internally managed investments. This review determined that investments with a value of £21.1 million, previously classified as ProgrammeRelated Investments (PRIs), should now be classified as Financial Investments from 1 April 2024. This reflects their commercial nature and focus on financial return. This ensures our reporting remains aligned with SORP (FRS 102) and provides clearer distinction between investments held to further charitable purposes and those held for return.

Total Group funds decreased by (£4.3 million) (2024: increased by £6.1 million) during the year following the movements explained above. This resulted in Group funds of £473.6 million carried forward as at 31 March 2025 (31 March 2024: £477.9 million). Of this amount, £36.0 million (2024: £51.4 million) was unrestricted, £8.5 million (2024: £14.6 million) was restricted, and £429.1 million (2024: £411.9 million) was in relation to the expendable endowment.

Annual report and accounts for the year ended 31 March 2025

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Financial review

The Nesta Trust investment review

The assets of The Nesta Trust provide income and capital to be applied by Nesta as sole Trustee to further the objects of Nesta. The investment strategy balances the desire to maintain the real value of the endowment and its ability to generate the income which Nesta will require, while at the same time maximising total return to fund activities to advance Nesta’s charitable objectives. The strategy aims to balance risk, return and capital preservation.

In the year ended 31 March 2025, The Nesta Trust reported a net decrease in funds of (£4.9 million) (2024: increase of £2.0 million). This reflects total investment income of £17.3 million (2024: £16.4 million), less expenditure of £35.8 million (2024: £29.9 million), primarily comprising transfers to Nesta to deliver charitable activities. The deficit was partially offset by net investment gains of £13.6 million (2024: £16.0 million). Investment income and expenditure were both in line with forecasts.

The Nesta Trust entered into an agreement on 16 July 2015 to purchase a long leasehold interest in a property located in London for £51 million. Practical completion took place on 26 September 2016, and the lease on the investment property will run until November 2162. The total amount shown below under investment properties is £55.2 million (2024: £57.0 million), which includes the investment property valued at £42.9 million (2024: £44.8 million) and a £12.3 million property fund (2024: £12.2 million).

During the year ended 31 March 2025, the value of The Nesta Trust investments and cash decreased by £8.1 million to £418.3 million (2024: £426.4 million) after annual transfers to Nesta to carry out the objectives of The Nesta Trust in line with the Trust Deed. A further breakdown of the £8.1 million decrease can be seen in the table below:

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Fair value of Proportion of total Fair value of Proportion of total
investment assets endowment assets investment assets endowment assets
31 March 2025 31 March 2025 31 March 2024 31 March 2024
Asset class £’000 % £’000 %
Current assets:
Cash 13,531 3 5,389 1
Fixed asset investments
Equities and private equity:
Global equities (quoted) 141,481 34 123,775 29
UK small cap (quoted) - - 33,732 8
Emerging markets (quoted) - - 26,496 6
Infrastructure equity (unquoted) 22,188 5 21,681 5
Private equity funds (unquoted) 1,042 - 2,710 1
Fixed income and property:
Multi-asset credit (unquoted) 66,267 16 65,954 15
Asset-backed securities (unquoted) 79,734 19 44,767 11
Private debt (corporate) (unquoted) 15,234 4 10,167 2
Private debt (infrastructure) (unquoted) 17,285 4 17,528 4
Property 55,187 13 56,969 14
Bonds (quoted) - - 23 -
Early stage investments:
Investment in early stage companies 5,794 2 16,591 4
Investment in early stage funds 566 - 578 -
Total cash plus fixed asset investments 418,309 100 426,360 100
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Annual report and accounts for the year ended 31 March 2025

33

Financial review

Actions taken during the year included the following:

Fixed asset investment performance (The Nesta Trust)

The allocation to Equities and Private Equity decreased to 39% (2024: 49%), with a corresponding increase in Fixed Income and Property to 56% (2024: 46%). This shift reflects the continued implementation of the current investment strategy, which aims to increase exposure to asset classes that generate more predictable cashflows. Just prior to the year-end, some investments were tactically reallocated from within the Equities and Private Equity bucket, specifically from Global Equities, into Asset-Backed Securities within Fixed Income and Property. This temporary measure was designed to increase cash yields over the next three years and reduce the risk of forced asset sales, such as selling investments at a loss during temporary market downturns. This short-term action does not change the long-term strategic allocation targets.

The long-term target allocation remains 51% to Equities and Private Equity, 48% to Fixed Income and Property, and 1% to Cash for operational liquidity. At the year-end, cash represented 3% (2024: 1%) of total endowment assets. This higher-than-target cash balance primarily resulted from the sale of an asset within the early-stage companies portfolio towards year-end. The proceeds were retained in cash rather than immediately reinvested, following a strategic decision to preserve liquidity for short-term requirements and to avoid

the risk of having to sell investments soon after purchase. As a result, the current allocations temporarily deviate from the long-term targets. It is not expected that the target allocation will be fully achieved until all investment managers have drawn down their committed funds, which may take several years.

Investment fund commitments

During the year, no new commitments (2024: £nil) were made to investment managers. Undrawn commitments of £24.6 million remain outstanding for investment funds as disclosed in Note 19 to these Financial Statements (2024: £28.7 million).

Maximising value from our self-managed early-stage venture portfolio

The early-stage venture portfolio includes equity investments that have a fair value in five (2024: six) early-stage companies, and one (2024: one) early-stage investment fund. The Nesta Trust’s investment strategy is to maximise the returns from the current portfolio but not to invest in any new early-stage companies or funds in the near future due to these investments being slow to generate income and being typically higher risk than other asset classes.

Costs of managing the assets

Direct costs, reported by external fund managers, of The Nesta Trust’s investment assets totalled £0.19 million (2024: £0.41 million), include external fund manager fees and custodian fees. In addition, there are other indirect costs associated with fund management activities. Where fund manager fees are offset against the relevant fund’s value, these are grossed up and shown as fund manager fee expenditure in the Statement of Financial Activities in accordance with normal practice along with those fund manager fees that are invoiced and paid for in cash. The full cost of investment goes beyond the fees

we are charged by managers and include, for example, transaction costs, advisory costs and staff costs. We estimate that the full costs were about £4.7 million (1.1%) of the average asset value over the year (2024: £3.5 million; 0.8%). Both the year-on-year decrease in direct costs and the year-on-year increase in full costs was anticipated and results from the shift to the new investment strategy. Over the long term, the increase in cost is expected to be offset by achieving a greater return on investments.

Annual report and accounts for the year ended 31 March 2025

34

Financial review

Investment policy

The Nesta Trust was established by a Trust Deed dated 22 September 2011.

As the sole Trustee of The Nesta Trust, Nesta is responsible for The Nesta Trust’s investment policy. The investment strategy is delegated to the Trust Investment Committee which is responsible for strategic and tactical asset allocation, rebalancing, styles and weighting within asset classes, as well as monitoring manager, consultancy and custodial arrangements.

The Trustee holds the investment assets of The Nesta Trust without distinction between capital and income, applying them in furtherance of The Nesta Trust’s objects. These investment assets are held as an expendable endowment.

The Trustee’s investment objective is to balance the current and future needs of The Nesta Trust by:

• producing a consistent and sustainable level of income to support the work of Nesta in advancing the charitable objects of The Nesta Trust

• ensuring sufficient liquidity to avoid the forced sale of Trust assets at distressed prices, while ensuring that the majority of the assets are invested in higher returning investment instruments

• maintaining if possible the value of investments in

• real terms

• delivering these objectives within acceptable levels

• of risk

Trust assets are invested in accordance with the wide investment powers set out in the Trust Deed, which places specific conditions on the Trustee’s power to invest:

“The Trustee must set the investment and spending policy for the Trust with a view to preventing the value of the Trust assets and any returns generated by the Trust assets falling below £260 million.”

To meet these objectives, the Trustee invests globally and maintains diversification across a range of asset classes to produce an appropriate balance between risk and return, believing that diversification limits the impact of any single risk.

The Trustee has reviewed the investment activities for the year and confirms that they were aligned with the investment policy, resulting in the above stated objectives being broadly met. The Trustee is aware that, given the current level of annual draw, the real-term value of investments has not been fully maintained during the year. This position is under close review to ensure ongoing alignment with the Trust’s long-term nature. The Trust continues to support the delivery of Nesta’s strategy, and Nesta is actively seeking to increase its external funding over time to help reduce reliance on the Trust’s endowment.

The Trustee does not set a fixed target investment return but instead aims to generate a total return sufficient to support Nesta’s operational costs and agreed allocations for mission-aligned investments (the Annual Draw). This approach reflects the Trust’s long-term nature and the requirement, set out in the Trust Deed, to ensure the value of the Trust assets does not fall below £260 million.

Annual report and accounts for the year ended 31 March 2025

35

Financial review

Responsible investing

Nesta believes that responsible investment can enhance long-term portfolio performance. The process of incorporating a more responsible approach to investment involves:

• some limited exclusion of stocks where Nesta objects on moral grounds to the activity of the company in question.

• an explicit programme to monitor fund managers’ incorporation of environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors and their practice of active ownership.

• adoption of the Hermes Equity Ownership Service for our index investments.

These policies have informed the Trustee’s actions, oversight, and asset allocation decisions and have shaped the Trust's policy on responsible investment and corporate governance, as set out in its Statement of Investment Principles. The current policy was last approved by the Board in July 2023. A comprehensive review of Nesta’s approach to responsible investing is underway and expected to be concluded before the end of 2025.

As far as the Trustee is aware, the only potential area where The Nesta Trust does not fully accord with its policy is in relation to historical private equity holdings, which are being run down over time and had a value of £1 million at 31 March 2025 (2024: £3 million).

Programme-related investments and grantmaking policy

Nesta achieves its charitable objects, and the objects of The Nesta Trust, in several ways, which include providing investment, grant making, providing non-financial support and carrying out research. It also provides support in a range of different ways, depending on the nature and objectives of each programme.

In line with Charity Commission guidelines, programmerelated investments are made primarily to further the objects of the charity for public benefit and are managed in line with programme objectives. Consequently, they are, as permitted by Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice (FRS 102) applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland, and included in the balance sheet at cost less any provision for impairment where there is no evidence for fair value.

There is no set allocation of the annual budget for overall grant expenditure. Rather, Nesta sets programme deliverables and determines the appropriate method of delivery within that programme’s budget. Nesta sets out specific entitlement criteria for each programme at its launch where grants are appropriate as a funding mechanism. These criteria vary from programme to programme and are made available on Nesta’s website. Applications are assessed against these criteria and awards are made taking into account the availability of funds, Nesta’s ability to deliver the objectives of the programme and the quality of applications. The period for which grants are awarded depends on the programme but typically lasts between one and three years. Grants are monitored regularly and appropriate progress reports are required from recipients. A list of grants over £50,000 can be found in Note 7b on pages 69 and 70.

Free reserves policy

In accordance with the Trust Deed of The Nesta Trust, Nesta’s reserves policy is to provide sustainable funding to advance the charitable aims of The Nesta Trust while holding reserves at sufficient levels to maintain the underlying assets above a market value of £260 million.

On 31 March 2025 the reserves of the Group stood at £473.6 million (2024: £477.9 million). The Nesta Trust provided funding to fulfil its charitable objectives, through activities carried out by Nesta, totalling £22.4 million (2024: £21.3 million).

Nesta, as the parent charity, has no requirement to maintain its own reserves, provided that expenditure remains within the approved amount of drawdown from The Nesta Trust. The policy for drawdown was established in line with the Trust Deed and subject to the powers of the Protector of The Nesta Trust, and allows drawdowns at any time during the year as long as the approved drawdown total is not exceeded.

Cash received that is restricted in use of specific programme expenditure is held on Nesta’s own balance sheet.

This reserves policy will only be reviewed when there is a change in the funding relationship between The Nesta Trust and Nesta; such a change is currently not foreseeable.

Annual report and accounts for the year ended 31 March 2025

36

Financial review

Principal risks and uncertainties

The Executive Team and Risk Evaluation Group are responsible for the management of risks within the Nesta Group and the trustees and Audit and Risk Committee are responsible for setting the Group’s risk appetite. The monitoring and implementation of the risk management framework is delegated to the group senior internal audit and risk manager, with oversight from the Audit and Risk Committee. The risk register is reviewed by the Executive Team and Audit and Risk Committee twice a year, and annually by the Board. The Risk Evaluation Group meets twice a year to review and update the risk register and any urgent changes are made on an ad hoc basis.

The following controls support the risk management framework to ensure appropriate governance around the management of operational risks:

• an established organisational and governance structure and lines of reporting

• detailed terms of reference for the Board, Audit and Risk Committee and Risk Evaluation Group

• comprehensive financial planning, budgeting, management reporting and monitoring

• formal written policies and hierarchical authorisation and approval levels

• internal audit services engagement with programmes selected for review which are informed by the risk register

Key strategic risk Key considerations

We are too small scale in our thinking and do not initiate and back projects that will lead to large-scale impact.

Three-year strategies are in place which have more specific, measurable, intermediate goals that are organised by area of focus. Mapping our existing portfolio against the three-year strategies helps to identify gaps and priorities.

Poor investment returns due to changing external environments result in the endowment being unable to fund Nesta’s activities.

Investment risk is managed with the support of our external investment advisors, through regular review of The Nesta Trust investment policy, management of the strategic asset allocation, regular performance reporting, diversification across a broad range of asset classes, investment managers and investment strategies, and ongoing manager reviews.

Workload is too widespread and teams are too stretched to	Effective project management processes are in place to ensure
appropriately support Nesta’s work on its missions.	resources are adequately allocated to all missions.
One or more projects, partners, or subsidiary activities attract	Oversight from the Nesta legal team with continued review of
public criticism which diminishes Nesta’s reputation and its	policies and regular training ensures this risk is mitigated to an
ability to advance its objects.	acceptable level.
Threat of a serious breach from a cyber attack.	The risk is mitigated by antivirus/endpoint protection software, daily
	monitoring and bespoke training for critical staff.

Annual report and accounts for the year ended 31 March 2025

37

Objects

4. Objects

Nesta works to advance the following charitable aims for the public benefit:

1. To advance education, and in particular the study of innovation, by the promotion of research and the publication of the useful results thereof, in:

• science and technology

• the arts

• the efficiency of public services

• the voluntary sector and social enterprise

• industry and commerce.

2. To advance:

• science and technology

• the arts

• the efficiency of public services

• the voluntary sector

• industry and commerce and social enterprise which:

• relieves unemployment

• advances health

• advances environmental protection or improvement and sustainable development

• advances citizenship or community development through, or by encouraging and supporting, innovation.

The voluntary sector means charities and voluntary organisations. Charities are organisations which are established for exclusively charitable purposes in accordance with the law of England and Wales, and Scotland.

Voluntary organisations are independent organisations which are established for purposes that add value to the community as a whole, or a significant section of the community and which are not permitted by their constitution to make a profit for private distribution. Voluntary organisations do not include local government or other statutory authorities.

Sustainable development means 'development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’.

3. To advance any other purpose which is recognised as exclusively charitable under the laws of England and Wales, and Scotland.

Fundraising statement

Section 162a of the Charities Act 2011 requires us to make a statement regarding fundraising activities. Nesta does not undertake any fundraising activities and does not use any professional fundraisers or 'commercial participators' or any third parties to solicit donations. We are therefore not subject

to any regulatory scheme or relevant codes of practice. We have not received any complaints in relation to fundraising activities, nor do we consider it necessary to design specific procedures to monitor such activities in the current year or in the prior year.

Public benefit statement

The trustees confirm that, in exercising their powers and duties in relation to both Nesta and The Nesta Trust, they have had due regard to the Charity Commission’s statutory guidance on public benefit.

A copy of the Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit is provided to each trustee. The Board considers how every proposal brought to it for approval will advance Nesta’s charitable objects for public benefit.

This report sets out some of Nesta’s activities and achievements in carrying out its charitable purposes, and the purposes of The Nesta Trust, for the public benefit over the year. Nesta confronts challenges that affect millions of people, from inequality and ill-health to the climate crisis, believing that innovation offers more potential now than ever before. We see opportunities

to mobilise citizens and influence behaviour. We see private and public capital that can be used more creatively. There is a wealth of data to mine and so we draw on these rich resources by bringing together diverse teams, data scientists, designers and behavioural scientists, practitioners, academics, entrepreneurs and people with lived experience.

Together, we design, test and scale new solutions to society’s biggest problems. We partner with frontline organisations, build new businesses and work to change whole systems. Harnessing the rigour of science and the creativity of design, we work relentlessly to put new ideas to the test.

The details of Nesta’s purposes and objectives, and its strategies and achievements in pursuing these purposes and objectives, are set out on pages 7 to 30.

Annual report and accounts for the year ended 31 March 2025

38

Governance and management

5. Governance and management

Nesta was established and registered as a charity in 2011 to act as successor body to the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts ('NESTA'). NESTA was a non-departmental public body with a statutory remit to promote talent, creativity and innovation in science, technology and the arts, with an endowment from the National Lottery. All NESTA activities, staff, assets and liabilities were transferred on 1 April 2012 to Nesta (registered charity no. 1144091) and The Nesta Trust (registered charity no. 1144683). The Trust holds the expendable endowment and Nesta, its sole Trustee, uses returns from the Trust to pursue the charitable objects of the Trust.

Nesta is a company limited by guarantee and a charity registered with the Charity Commission and the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator. Its trustees are also the directors and members of the company. Further information on the Group structure and subsidiaries is provided on page 31. This trustees’ annual report has been prepared in accordance with the Companies Act 2006 and the Charities SORP (FRS 102). It also constitutes the directors’ report and, as Nesta meets the definition of a large company under the Companies Act, includes the strategic report. The information required to be included in the strategic report is set out in the sections of this report describing our strategic overview, financial review, and governance and management.

The charity is committed to the highest standards of ethical conduct and corporate governance. As part of this commitment, the trustees confirm that the charity maintains a strict policy of zero tolerance towards all forms of corruption, bribery and fraud.

The charity's financial controls, governance structure, and processes and procedures are designed to ensure compliance with the Bribery Act 2010 and all other relevant legislation. These measures, which are regularly reviewed by the Executive Team and the trustees, include comprehensive controls over expenditures and specific due diligence procedures for all significant partners, suppliers, and overseas activities.

Through this robust framework, the trustees are satisfied that the charity’s governance and activities are effective in preventing and detecting matters relating to anti-corruption and bribery, ensuring these risks do not materially impact the charity’s development, performance or position.

Under company and charity law, the Board of Trustees retains overall responsibility for Nesta and its role as Trustee of The Nesta Trust. Trustees in post on the date this annual report is published are listed on page 93.

Ed Richards has been the charity's chair since 1 April 2022. The Board met six times in the year with members of the Executive Team also present.

The Trust has a Protector appointed by the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology (formally Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy) with a fiduciary duty to ensure the integrity of the administration of the Trust and the propriety of its procedures. James Sinclair Taylor, an experienced charity lawyer, was appointed as the first Protector of the Trust by the Secretary of State on 1 April 2012. His term came to an end on 31 March 2022. The process to recruit his replacement has been interrupted due to the relevant government minister changing and is still not concluded. In the interim, it has been agreed with the Secretary of State that James Sinclair Taylor shall be the governance advisor of the Trust with the same responsibilities and powers as the protector.

Trustees receive no remuneration for acting as trustees and are appointed for an initial term of three years, renewable for another three years with Board approval. New trustees receive an induction covering their legal duties, the charity’s governance framework, and its activities. Trustees are also offered ongoing training and updates on relevant regulatory, governance and sector developments to support them in fulfilling their responsibilities. The Board observes all seven principles of the Charity Governance Code and provides appropriate control, challenge and support to the Executive Team.

Annual report and accounts for the year ended 31 March 2025

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Governance and management

The Board has adopted a conflicts of interest policy and processes for both staff and trustees to ensure that conflicts of interests are declared and managed appropriately, and maintains a Register of Interests. Trustees are reminded to declare relevant interests at the start of every Board and committee meeting.

The Board has appointed a chief executive to lead and manage Nesta by implementing the policy and strategy adopted by the trustees within the plan and budget approved by the Board. Approval for decisions up to certain financial thresholds have been delegated to the chief executive and other executive directors under a Scheme of Delegation. All decisions above this threshold must be approved by the Board or its committees. The Board has also reserved to itself certain important decisions, such as changes to the Articles, appointment of the chief executive, and approval of the long-term objectives and strategy.

Nesta and The Nesta Trust Board (‘the Board’) which supports our Executive Team, guiding their decisionmaking on strategic issues, holding them to account for their leadership of the organisation, and helping them to deliver Nesta’s charitable objects. The Board met six times during the year.

Audit and Risk Committee which reviews management reporting and financial performance against budget, and recommends to the Board the annual budget; as well as reviewing audit and financial reporting, internal financial controls, risk management and compliance. The Committee met four times during the year.

Trust Investment Committee whose key responsibilities are to draw up the policies and objectives governing the investment of The Nesta Trust’s assets, to approve investments within ranges set by the Board, to oversee their implementation and to monitor financial performance of The Nesta Trust. The Committee met six times during the year.

Quarterly Investment Committee which manages the Trust's portfolio of interests in early-stage companies and funds transferred from NESTA, manages social

Nesta's Executive Team comprises the group chief executive, plus the deputy chief executive, the group chief people officer, the group general counsel and company secretary, the chief programmes officer, chief strategy officer, chief practices officer, executive director of investments and the group executive director of communications. A full list is given on page 94.

The Board has established a number of committees to oversee aspects of Nesta's activities. Each of the Board committees has delegated authority in respect of certain functions and activities and has written terms of reference approved by the Board, and report to the Board at each Board meeting. A list of trustee members and the respective chairs for each of the Board committees is provided on page 93.

Below is a list of the main Board committees:

investments, and oversees any other Nesta investment. The Committee met four times during the year.

People Committee whose key responsibilities are reviewing and approving staff terms and conditions, and ensuring fair and appropriate remuneration and benefit policies. The Committee met three times during the year, and advised on the annual pay award which was negotiated with the Community union and also determined the annual remuneration of the executives. The Committee also manages the recruitment of new trustees and oversees appointments to other committees.

Mission Committee which is an advisory committee with no delegated authority from the Board. This Committee’s purpose is to provide advice and direction to Nesta’s Missions and to actively participate in the shaping of initiatives and supporting staff to deliver the new Mission goals. The Committee met three times during the year.

Challenge Works Board which supports the senior leadership of Challenge Works, guiding their decisionmaking on strategic issues and reporting to the Board on progress. The Board met three times during the year.

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Annual report and accounts for the year ended 31 March 2025

40

Governance and management

Sustainability and carbon reporting

Nesta is reporting energy and carbon emissions in compliance with The Companies (Directors’ Report) and Limited Liability Partnerships (Energy and Carbon Report) Regulations 2018.

Nesta has worked towards optimising energy performance at 58 Victoria Embankment throughout the 2024/25 reporting year. Consumption was higher than expected due to temporary infrastructure faults earlier in the year, which led to short-term spikes in use. These issues were resolved towards the end of the period, and we now anticipate a marked reduction in gas consumption as adjustments to the building management system are rolled out. Notably, we are targeting a further step-down in combined heat and power operations, even in colder months. Furthermore, the building has experienced a higher usage base, which aligns with greater occupancy levels in the building compared to the 2023/24 period and subsequent increased use of building services.

The impact from the rollout of efficiency measures such as automated floor closures during low occupancy, sensorled heating, ventilation, and air conditioning and lighting controls, and improvements to system scheduling will become more evident over the next full financial year.

This year’s data reflects Nesta’s commitment to transitioning toward low-carbon operations while adapting to changing working patterns. The results highlight the balance being achieved between increased building use and continued reductions in total emissions and energy intensity.

The building team continually monitors the energy consumption and has put in place processes to reduce energy consumption, including closing floors when the footfall is reduced and introducing lighting that not only turns off when no one is using the area but also turns off the air conditioning to save energy. A further programme of improvement measures has also been identified and will be delivered during the following financial year.

		Emissions 256.852 kgC02e	Emissions 256.852 kgC02e	Emissions 256.852 kgC02e
Financial year	April 2024 – March 2025	Emissions	256.852 kgC02e
Intensity metric	Floor area (m2)	Emissions intensity	44,79 kgC02e/m2/year

Reporting category	Current reporting year April 24 through March 25	Previous reporting year April 23 through March 24	April 20 through March 21
Energy consumption used to calculate emissions (kWh)	1,295,617	1,008,558	660,848
Electricity (kWh)	823,346	689,278	414,202
Natural gas (kWh)	472,271	319,280	246,646
Emissions from combustion of gas (Scope 1) (kgCO2e)	86,378	58,401	45,350
Emissions from purchased electricity (Scope 2) (kgCO2e)	170,474	142,727	98,751
Total gross kg CO2e emitted during the reporting period	256,852	201,128	144,101
Intensity ratio (gross kgCO2e/m2/year)	44,79	35,08	25,13
Emissions from purchased natural gas (Scope 1, market based) (kgCO2e)	86,378	58,401	45,350
Emissions from purchased electricity (Scope 2, market based) (kgCO2e)	170,474	142,727	98,751
Carbon offsets (kgCO2e)	-	-	-
Total annual net emissions (kgCO2e)	256,852	201,128	144,101
Net intensity ratio (kgCO2e/m2)	44,79	35,08	25,13

Annual report and accounts for the year ended 31 March 2025

41

Governance and management

Carbon emissions for the year ended 31 March 2025:

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----- Start of picture text -----
Carbon emissions Emissions by source
300,000 4.50
4.00
250,000
3.50
200,000 3.00 34 [%]
kgCO2e 2.50 kgCO2e/
m2/m
150,000
2.00 66 [%]
100,000 1.50
1.00
50,000
0.50
0 0.00 Electricity
Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar
Natural gas
Previous FY kgCO2e Emissions Current FY kgCO2e Emissions
Previous FY Carbon Intensity Current FY Carbon Intensity
----- End of picture text -----

Carbon emissions for the year ended 31 March 2024:

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----- Start of picture text -----
Carbon emissions Emissions by source
250,000 4.00
3.50
200,000
3.00
2.50 29 [%]
150,000
kgCO2e 2.00 kgCO2e/
m2/m
100,000 1.50
71 [%]
1.00
50,000
0.50
0 0.00
Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar
Electricity
Previous FY kgCO2e Emissions Current FY kgCO2e Emissions
Previous FY Carbon Intensity Current FY Carbon Intensity Natural gas
----- End of picture text -----

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Governance and management

Methodology and estimates

Nesta complies with the Companies Act 2006 (Strategic Report and Directors’ Report) Regulations 2013 and the Companies (Directors’ Report) and Limited Liability Partnerships (Energy and Carbon Report) Regulations 2018 and the approach to reporting is based on the GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard in line with the guidance on streamlined energy and carbon reporting. The reporting period is for the financial year 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, reporting all material GHG emissions using 'Kilograms of CO2 equivalent' (kgCO2e) as the unit of measurement and reporting energy use in kWh. Included is the energy and emissions for the buildings operated and within the financial control boundary. The results are presented as location-based emissions and market-based emissions, where applicable. ‘Locationbased’ reflects the average emissions intensity of grid supplies (using grid average emissions factors) and ‘market-based’ reflects emissions from electricity and or gas where companies have opted to procure green energy or invested in renewable generation.

The methodology used to calculate total energy consumption was performed by implementing halfhour data provided by the utility company serving the organisation/asset. As Nesta does not occupy the whole building at 58 Victoria Embankment, consumption for areas outside of Nesta’s control has been deducted. This has been deduced through sub-meter readings.

Emission levels increasing is in line with more people using the office. Energy and fuel consumption has been converted to carbon (kgCO2e) using DEFRA published conversion factors with new conversion tables using the most up-to-date conversion factors for each period and each fuel type. In this instance, grid electricity and natural gas conversion rates were used. The most appropriate intensity metric has been selected in line with the primary drivers of energy consumption, where possible. For this report Gross Internal Area (GIA SQM) has been selected as the most appropriate to achieve a benchmark, and calculated intensity based on kWh consumed per meter squared per year (kWh/m[2] /yr).

Net zero

The Nesta Group has a net zero strategy, which has been created in line with best practice and the ambition to limit global temperature increase to 1.5°C. This includes reducing Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 90% by 2035, significantly reducing key Scope 3 categories by 2050,

and ensuring 25% of the investment portfolio is aligned to Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) targets by 2030. Our typical Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions activities are listed below:

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Scope Definition Nesta activities within Scope
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Scope	Definition	Nesta activities within Scope
Scope 1	Direct emissions that are owned or controlled by an organisation.	• Diesel use by back-up generator
Scope 2	Indirect emissions that are associated with the purchase of electricity, steam, heat or cooling, and are a result of the organisation’s energy use.	• Purchased electricity • Purchased gas
Scope 3	All indirect emissions (not included in Scope 2) that occur in the value chain of the reporting organisation, including both upstream and downstream emissions.	• Supply chain emissions: • Purchased goods and services • Upstream transport and distribution • Business travel emissions • Employee commuting • Emissions from investment portfolio • Emissions from waste generated in operations

Annual report and accounts for the year ended 31 March 2025

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Governance and management

The Net Zero Strategic Plan was signed off by The Nesta Trust in July 2025, and is championed at the executive level by the chief of staff. As part of this strategy, the Trust approved an investment of up to £2 million for a programme of necessary legislated upgrades to the EPC rating of Nesta’s headquarters at 58 Victoria Embankment, required for commercial rentals and as a result also reduce Nesta Group’s Scope 1 and 2 emissions in line with SBTI guidelines.

The headline initiatives in this programme include:

• Installation of air source heat pumps : to reduce reliance on gas by providing a low-carbon, energyefficient alternative for heating and cooling.

• Upgrade to the solar PV panels on the roof : to increase renewable energy generation onsite, helping to reduce electricity costs and emissions.

• LED lighting replacements and upgrades : to cut energy usage and maintenance costs while improving lighting quality across the building.

• Installation of extensive submetering throughout the building : to enable more accurate monitoring and management of energy consumption, helping to identify savings opportunities.

The process of finalising the programme’s implementation is running concurrently with the collation of data across the Nesta entities in order to calculate total Group emissions across Scopes 1, 2 and 3. A Net Zero Governance Group was confirmed in August 2025, with the responsibility of ensuring that the Group’s net zero ambitions are embedded across the business and that progress is tracked and reported into the programme lead.

• Upgrades to the air handling unit motors : to improve operational efficiency, reducing electricity consumption and enhancing ventilation performance.

The Charity Governance Code

The Board is committed to adopting the principles set out in the Charity Governance Code (the 'Code'). In 2021 and in accordance with good practice, external specialist consultants undertook a full governance and board effectiveness review which concluded that Nesta has a "well functioning board that has led Nesta through significant change". The recommendations in the report aimed at further improving and refining Nesta's governance have been implemented and, in addition, Nesta's governance structures are regularly reviewed

internally to ensure they continue to be best practice. The Board has also reviewed the principles of the Charity Governance Code to ensure ongoing compliance. A further external review of governance and board effectiveness will be carried out later in 2025.

Annual report and accounts for the year ended 31 March 2025

44

Governance and management

Section 172 statement

Background

As a company limited by guarantee, Nesta is required to report on how trustees have discharged their duty to promote the best interests of Nesta, while having regard to the matters set out in section 172(1)(a) to (f) of the Companies Act 2006. In doing so, regard (among other matters) must be given to:

• the likely long-term consequences of any decision

• the interests of employees

• fostering relationships with key stakeholders

• the impact of operations on our communities and environment (please see section on sustainability and carbon reporting for more details)

• maintenance of our reputation for the highest standards of conduct

• the need to act fairly as between members of the company.

Our stakeholders

The Board recognises that Nesta’s relationship with its stakeholders is critical to its success. Our charitable objects, scale and impact are achieved in part through relationships and having a positive influence on public policy for public benefit.

It is to note that The Nesta Trust reports into the UK Government's Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (‘DSIT’) in terms of the Trust’s balance sheet, which forms part of DSIT's annual financial accounts.

DSIT does not have any control over the investments the Trust makes but as stated earlier in the report, an interim governance advisor is in place to observe the governance of the Trust until a permanent protector is appointed.

The table below sets out our key stakeholder groups, the key considerations of each group and how we engage with them. By understanding our stakeholders, Board discussions consider the potential impact of our decisions on each stakeholder group and consider their needs and concerns.

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Stakeholder group Key considerations How we engage
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Stakeholder group	Key considerations	How we engage
Beneficiaries	Improving the lives of the people and communities that Nesta works with. Making sure that our work benefits a significant section of the public.	Digital communications (website, social media, direct email). Event appearances and media coverage. Via our partners.
Partners	Nesta’s partners are broad with varying interests. The nature of our partner engagement covers anything from working as part of a coalition for change on a particular issue to collaborating on a particular research project.	Publication of research reports, articles, data stories and blogs. Face-to-face meetings, or other forms of one-to-one engagement on relevant issues. Events and roundtables. Partner feedback and insights sought on issues of relevance to that partner. Newsletters, social media and other forms of marketing engagement. Nesta events and through attending or speaking at external events.
Employees	Providing a positive work environment and culture. Ensuring a focus on ensuring equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI). Providing opportunities for training, development and growth. Offering fair and appropriate remuneration and benefits.	We receive feedback through various mechanisms including an annual engagement survey and seek to implement positive change. We have a vibrant range of internal communication channels including our intranet, staff newsletters and all-staff meetings. We encourage regular performance and development conversations through our performance management approach: purpose-driven performance. We offer a wide range of learning and development opportunities.
Regulators	Maintaining strict governance and legal procedures to ensure compliance with all applicable regulatory regimes.	Timely submissions of all necessary filings and returns. Self-reporting and engagement where appropriate. Appropriate policies and training on key compliance and legal issues. Oversight by the legal team. Prompt and comprehensive response to requests for information.
Investment managers	Comprehensive view of the financial performance and sustainability of the endowment. Engagement on impact and ethical, social and governance factors. Ability to maximise the overall return of the endowment.	Regular meetings, calls and correspondence with our investment managers. Oversight from our Trust Investment Committee. Via Nesta’s external appointed investment advisors.

Annual report and accounts for the year ended 31 March 2025

45

Governance and management

Key decisions in 2024/25

The table below sets out the key decisions taken by The Board in 2024/25 and how the interests of our stakeholders and the wider factors set out in section 172 of the Companies Act 2006 were taken into account.

Key decision	Reason	Key considerations
Approval of the wind down of	In order to further the charitable objects of both	Long-term impact on Nesta’s strategy and on Nesta’s ability
Nesta Impact Investments.	Nesta and The Nesta Trust, and in pursuit of	to continue to achieve its charitable objects.
	Nesta’s mission-led strategy, the Board approved the change in focus of Nesta’s venture building activity from impact investment to the in-house	Achievement of Nesta’s mission-led strategy. Impact on current and future Nesta beneficiaries.
	Mission Studio.	Impact on reputation and standing with Nesta’s
		stakeholders.
Confirmation that the current	In order to further the charitable objects of both	Long-term impact on Nesta’s strategy and on Nesta’s ability
level of endowment draw is	Nesta and The Nesta Trust and to ensure financial	to continue to achieve its charitable objects.
appropriate given Nesta’s strategic goals, and can remain in place (rising by inflation, but subject to annual approval) for	sustainability, the Board confirmed the level of draw from the endowment for the next three years, subject to review after that.	Achievement of Nesta’s and The Nesta Trust’s long-term financial strategy. Impact on current and future Nesta beneficiaries.
the next three years, after which		Impact on reputation and standing with Nesta’s
the level of funding will be re-		stakeholders.
assessed.
Approval of the strategy review’s	In order to further the charitable objects of both	Long-term impact on Nesta’s strategy and on Nesta’s ability
conclusion to continue to	Nesta and The Nesta Trust, and in pursuit of	to continue to achieve its charitable objects.
focus heavily on Nesta’s three missions, to accelerate Nesta’s pivot towards policy and to drive	Nesta’s mission-led strategy, the Board approved Nesta’s strategy review which aimed to increase focus on Nesta’s three missions, accelerate Nesta’s	Achievement of Nesta’s mission-led strategy. Impact on current and future Nesta beneficiaries.
towards scale.	pivot towards policy and drive towards scale.	Impact on reputation and standing with Nesta’s
		stakeholders.

Annual report and accounts for the year ended 31 March 2025

46

Governance and management

Nesta and its people

Nesta is dedicated to fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace that values the skills and contributions of all employees. We believe that a diverse workforce leads to an organisation that is more innovative, creative and gets better results. We want our workforce to represent the diversity of the people and communities we serve. We also want our workplace to be one where different experiences, expertise and perspectives are valued, and where everyone is encouraged to grow and develop. When recruiting, we actively seek to reach a diverse pool of candidates and we consider any reasonable adjustments that potential employees may need in order to be successful. We recognise the importance of a good balance between work and home life and seek to accommodate flexible working, including working from home, compressed or part-time hours and other arrangements.

Nesta is committed to the employment and career development of disabled people. We give full and fair consideration to all applications, and if an existing employee becomes disabled during their employment, we make every reasonable effort to support their continued employment. We also provide appropriate training, development and career progression opportunities to ensure disabled colleagues can thrive at Nesta.

Providing information to employees

Nesta has several internal communication channels to disseminate information to employees, including email, Slack, an intranet, our regular staff bulletin ‘The Spark’, and options for staff to share Nesta's work through social media platforms. There are monthly all-staff meetings to share organisation-wide updates and communicate important information to staff and many different opportunities to come together and collaborate in both a work and social context.

Employee consultation

An annual employee engagement survey is carried out to provide feedback from employees on various aspects of their work environment, policies and practices. Employees are represented by the Community union for changes to pay, holidays and working hours through collective bargaining.

The Board and Executive Team actively engage with employees through surveys, union consultation, allstaff meetings, and cross-functional mission teams. Feedback from these channels is considered when making key decisions on pay, benefits, team structures, and organisational strategy, ensuring that employee perspectives are taken into account and help shape the charity’s performance, culture, and delivery of its objectives.

Encouraging employee involvement

The mission teams are cross-functional and bring together different methods and areas of expertise which encourages innovation, collaboration and shared decision-making. Employees are encouraged to take ownership of their work and we provide them with the autonomy to make decisions within their scope of responsibility.

Alongside this all staff are set individual goals on an annual basis with progress against these being reviewed three times throughout the year.

Creating awareness of economic factors

Financial information is accessible to all within legal and regulatory constraints, to help staff understand the financial performance of both the charity and the Nesta Group. Regular updates are given at all staff meetings on the charity’s performance and that of The Nesta Trust.

The Nesta Executive Team

The Nesta Executive Team, which comprises the charity's Key Management Personnel (KMP) for financial reporting purposes, is responsible for setting our strategic direction alongside providing day-to-day operational leadership of the charity. Our Executive Team (see page 94 for details) provides advice and updates to the Board on all strategic, operational or policy matters, the delivery of key organisational goals and communicates any issues arising from the specific functional areas for which its members are responsible.

The People Committee

The People Committee met three times in the year, providing governance and guidance to the people team.

Annual report and accounts for the year ended 31 March 2025

47

Governance and management

Key people activities

Throughout 2024/25 we have focused on:

• implementing new structures across various teams in order to have the right skills and expertise to further support the work of our missions

• introducing a programme of learning across the Group to develop the capabilities we require to deliver our strategic goals

• establishing our new target culture of ‘whatever it takes’ to achieve our mission goals.

People plans for 2025/26

Looking forward, for 2025/26 we will continue to drive our people strategy with particular focus on:

• driving a high-performance organisation with a robust performance management approach and training and development for our leaders and line managers

• attracting and retaining the best talent in the market including developing our employee value proposition to support attracting from a wider talent pool and supporting our existing talent in understanding how they can develop their careers within and beyond Nesta

• reviewing our employee benefits ensuring we’re offering employees a varied range of benefits to meet their needs

• developing our people systems capability with the implementation of a new learning experience platform and a market review of applicant tracking systems

• continuing to embed our ‘whatever it takes’ culture where all staff feel encouraged to do whatever it takes to achieve our missions.

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Pay at Nesta

At Nesta transparency is fundamental to all aspects of our work and we take the same approach to employee remuneration. We have detailed our approach to pay and outlined how our pay levels are defined. All pay bands are visible and available to our employees.

Our People Committee is responsible for agreeing salary levels of all executive posts upon appointment, any ex gratia or non contractual one-off payments and recommending the annual pay budget to the Board as part of our annual budget process.

Our executive pay band has been set to ensure we attract and retain the talent we require to successfully run a complex organisation, deliver on our strategy and maintain our standing as a global leader in innovation. The cumulative total for executive salaries is disclosed in Note 8d of the accounts.

Nesta is proud to be an Accredited Real Living Wage employer and funder and as such, all interns within the organisation are paid. Nesta’s annual salary review takes effect from 1 April. Our union has recognition for collective bargaining on pay and as such we agree a general cost of living award annually to reflect changes in the wider labour market and levels of inflation. A general award of 2.7% was made in April 2025 (4% in April 2024).

Decisions on any individual pay awards are guided by a set of established and published criteria which include consideration of any EDI factors. Given the importance of EDI, we seek to ensure that individual pay awards and promotions are proportional and representative across the protected characteristics of ethnicity and gender. Any individual pay awards fall within the annual pay budget as agreed by the People Committee and the Board.

Promotions are driven by business need and made when we have a clear requirement for a role to operate at a higher band and the current role holder is ready to perform at that level. All individual pay awards and promotions are approved by executive directors and the people team.

Nesta provides a mixed portfolio of financial and nonfinancial rewards and benefits for our employees to ensure we are able to attract and retain the most talented people to deliver our strategy.

Annual report and accounts for the year ended 31 March 2025

48

Governance and management

Statement of trustees’ responsibilities

The trustees who are also directors of Nesta (for the purpose of company law) are responsible for preparing the trustees' report (incorporating the strategic report and directors' report) and financial statements in accordance with applicable law and regulations and UK accounting standards, including Financial Reporting Standard 102: The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (UK Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

Company law requires the trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charitable company and the Group and of the income and expenditure of the charitable group for that period.

In preparing these financial statements, the trustees are required to:

• select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently

• observe the methods and principles in the Charities SORP

• state whether applicable UK accounting standards have been followed, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements

• prepare the financial statements on the going-concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the Group will continue in business.

The trustees are responsible for maintaining proper accounting records which disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charitable company and the Group and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Companies Act 2006. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charitable company and the Group and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

The trustees are responsible for the maintenance and integrity of the corporate and financial information included on Nesta’s website. Legislation in the UK governing the preparation and dissemination of financial statements may differ from legislation in other jurisdictions.

• make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent

Disclosure to our auditors

In so far as the trustees are aware:

• there is no relevant audit information of which the charitable company's auditors are unaware; and

• the trustees have taken all steps that they ought to have taken to make themselves aware of any relevant audit information and to establish that the auditors are aware of that information.

The trustees’ report, incorporating the strategic report, is approved by the Board of Trustees and authorised for issue on 25 September 2025, and signed on its behalf by:

Ed Richards

Chair of the Board of Trustees

Date: 5 December 2025

Annual report and accounts for the year ended 31 March 2025

49

Independent Auditor’s Report to the members and trustees of Nesta

6. Independent auditor’s report to the members of Nesta

Opinion

We have audited the financial statements of Nesta (the ‘parent charitable company’) and its subsidiaries (the ‘group’) for the year ended 31 March 2025 which comprise the consolidated statement of financial activities, parent statement of financial activities, consolidated and parent charity balance sheet, consolidated and parent charity cash flow statements and notes to the financial statements, including significant accounting policies. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including FRS 102 “The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland” (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

In our opinion the financial statements:

• give a true and fair view of the state of the group’s and the parent charitable company’s affairs as at 31 March 2025 and of the group’s and the parent charitable company’s incoming resources and application of resources, including its income and expenditure, for the year then ended;

• have been properly prepared in accordance with United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice; and

• have been prepared in accordance with the Companies Act 2006, the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 and regulations 6 and 8 of the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (as amended).

Basis for opinion

We have been appointed auditor under section 44(1)(c) of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 and under the Companies Act 2006 and report in accordance with regulations made under those Acts.

We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK) (ISAs (UK)) and applicable law. Our responsibilities under those standards are further described in the Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements section of our report. We are independent of the group and parent charitable company in accordance with the ethical requirements that are relevant to our audit of the financial statements in the UK, including the FRC’s Ethical Standard and we have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements. We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.

Conclusions relating to going concern

In auditing the financial statements, we have concluded that the trustees’ use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements is appropriate.

Based on the work we have performed, we have not identified any material uncertainties relating to events or conditions that, individually or collectively, may cast significant doubt on the group’s or parent charitable company’s ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least twelve months from when the financial statements are authorised for issue.

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Our responsibilities and the responsibilities of the trustees with respect to going concern are described in the relevant sections of this report.

Annual report and accounts for the year ended 31 March 2025

50

Independent Auditor’s Report to the members and trustees of Nesta

Other information

The other information comprises the information included in the annual report and accounts other than the financial statements and our auditor’s report thereon. The trustees are responsible for the other information contained within the annual report and accounts. Our opinion on the financial statements does not cover the other information and, except to the extent otherwise explicitly stated in our report, we do not express any form of assurance conclusion thereon.

Our responsibility is to read the other information and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the financial statements or our knowledge obtained in the course of the audit or otherwise appears to be materially misstated. If we identify such material inconsistencies or apparent material misstatements, we are required to determine whether this gives rise to a material misstatement in the financial statements themselves. If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that there is a material misstatement of this other information, we are required to report that fact.

We have nothing to report in this regard.

Opinions on other matters prescribed by the Companies Act 2006

In our opinion, based on the work undertaken in the course of the audit:

• the information given in the Directors’ Report, which includes the Directors’ Report and the Strategic Report prepared for the purposes of company law, for the financial year for which the financial statements are prepared is consistent with the financial statements; and

• the Directors’ Report and the Strategic Report included within the Annual Report and Accounts have been prepared in accordance with applicable legal requirements.

We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters where the Companies Act 2006 and the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (as amended) require us to report to you if, in our opinion:

• adequate and proper accounting records have not been kept by the parent charitable company, or returns adequate for our audit have not been received from branches not visited by us; or

• the parent charitable company financial statements are not in agreement with the accounting records and returns; or

• certain disclosures of trustees’ remuneration specified by law are not made; or

• we have not received all the information and explanations we require for our audit.

Responsibilities of trustees

As explained more fully in the Statement of Trustees’ responsibilities set out on page 49, the trustees (who are also the directors of the charitable company for the purposes of company law) are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements and for being satisfied that they give a true and fair view, and for such internal control as the trustees determine is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.

In preparing the financial statements, the trustees are responsible for assessing the group’s and parent charitable company’s ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the trustees either intend to liquidate the group or parent charitable company or to cease operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so.

Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements

Matters on which we are required to report by exception

In the light of the knowledge and understanding of the group and the parent charitable company and their environment obtained in the course of the audit, we have not identified material misstatements in the Directors’ Report or the Strategic Report included within Annual Report and Accounts.

Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an auditor’s report that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance, but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with ISAs (UK) will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financial statements.

Annual report and accounts for the year ended 31 March 2025

51

Independent Auditor’s Report to the members and trustees of Nesta

The extent to which the audit was considered capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud

Irregularities are instances of non-compliance with laws and regulations. The objectives of our audit are to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence regarding compliance with laws and regulations that have a direct effect on the determination of material amounts and disclosures in the financial statements, to perform audit procedures to help identify instances of non-compliance with other laws and regulations that may have a material effect on the financial statements, and to respond appropriately to identified or suspected non-compliance with laws and regulations identified during the audit.

In relation to fraud, the objectives of our audit are to identify and assess the risk of material misstatement of the financial statements due to fraud, to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence regarding the assessed risks of material misstatement due to fraud through designing and implementing appropriate responses and to respond appropriately to fraud or suspected fraud identified during the audit.

However, it is the primary responsibility of management, with the oversight of those charged with governance, to ensure that the entity's operations are conducted in accordance with the provisions of laws and regulations and for the prevention and detection of fraud.

In identifying and assessing risks of material misstatement in respect of irregularities, including fraud, the group audit engagement team:

• obtained an understanding of the nature of the sector, including the legal and regulatory frameworks that the group and parent charitable company operate in and how the group and parent charitable company are complying with the legal and regulatory frameworks;

• inquired of management, and those charged with governance, about their own identification and assessment of the risks of irregularities, including any known actual, suspected or alleged instances of fraud;

• discussed matters about non-compliance with laws and regulations and how fraud might occur including assessment of how and where the financial statements may be susceptible to fraud.

including the Trustees’ Report, remaining alert to new or unusual transactions which may not be in accordance with the governing documents, inspecting correspondence with tax authorities and evaluating advice received from external tax advisors.

The most significant laws and regulations that have an indirect impact on the financial statements are those in relation to employment laws and General Data Protection Regulations. We performed audit procedures to inquire of management and those charged with governance whether the group is in compliance with these law and regulations and inspected correspondence with regulatory authorities.

The group audit engagement team identified the risk of management override of controls, income recognition and carrying value of investments as the areas where the financial statements were most susceptible to material misstatement due to fraud. Audit procedures performed included but were not limited to testing manual journal entries and other adjustments, evaluating the business rationale in relation to significant, unusual transactions and transactions entered into outside the normal course of business, challenging judgments and estimates applied throughout the financial statements, testing of revenue cut off around the year end and reviewing management’s rationale for the valuation of investments.

A further description of our responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements is provided on the Financial Reporting Council’s website at http://www.frc.org.uk/ auditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of our auditor’s report.

Use of our report

This report is made solely to the charitable company’s members, as a body, in accordance with Chapter 3 of Part 16 of the Companies Act 2006. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the charitable company’s members those matters we are required to state to them in an auditor’s report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the charitable company and the charitable company’s members as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.

Hannah Catchpool (Senior Statutory Auditor)

As a result of these procedures we consider the most significant laws and regulations that have a direct impact on the financial statements are FRS 102, Charities SORP (FRS 102), Companies Act 2006, Charities Act 2011, Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005, the parent charitable company’s governing document, tax legislation. We performed audit procedures to detect non-compliances which may have a material impact on the financial statements which included reviewing the financial statements

For and on behalf of RSM UK Audit LLP, Statutory Auditor, Chartered Accountants, 25 Farringdon Street, London, EC4A 4AB

Date: 5 December 2025

RSM UK AUDIT LLP is eligible to act as an auditor in terms of section 1212 of the Companies Act 2006

Annual report and accounts for the year ended 31 March 2025

52

Financial statements

7. Financial statements

Consolidated statement of financial activities for the year ended 31 March 2025

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----- Start of picture text -----
2025 2025 2025 2025 2024
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Income from:
Investment income 2 175 - 14,838 15,013 14,214
Charitable activities 3 5,245 6,686 - 11,931 13,278
Other trading activities 4 26,872 - - 26,872 24,761
Other income 5 1,490 - - 1,490 159
Total Group income 33,782 6,686 14,838 55,306 52,412
Expenditure on:
Raising funds
Trading activities 6a 22,978 - - 22,978 23,193
Investment management costs 6b 56 - 188 244 468
Total expenditure on raising funds 23,034 - 188 23,222 23,661
Charitable activities 7
Applied research and policy 5,061 358 58 5,477 6,781
A fairer start 3,399 62 37 3,498 3,036
A healthy life 4,742 372 54 5,168 3,326
A sustainable future 3,935 79 43 4,057 2,847
Enterprises 12,584 12,212 263 25,059 13,074
Investments 3,785 750 48 4,583 6,197
Projects pre Strategy 2020 2,467 64 27 2,558 6,805
Total expenditure on charitable activities 35,973 13,897 530 50,400 42,066
Total Group expenditure 59,007 13,897 718 73,622 65,727
Net (expenditure)/income before investment gains (25,225) (7,211) 14,120 (18,316) (13,315)
Net gains/(losses) on Investments for financial return 11 (322) - 14,378 14,056 20,058
Net (expenditure)/income (25,547) (7,211) 28,498 (4,260) 6,743
Share of (losses) in joint venture 12b 20 - - 20 (545)
Transfers between funds 16 10,228 1,107 (11,335) - -
Net (expenditure)/income before other recognised (losses)/gains (15,299) (6,104) 17,163 (4,240) 6,198
Other recognised (losses)/gains
Foreign exchange (losses)/ gains (65) - 10 (55) (65)
Net movement in funds for the year (15,364) (6,104) 17,173 (4,295) 6,133
Reconciliation of funds
Total funds brought forward 22 51,365 14,556 411,935 477,856 471,723
Total funds carried forward 36,001 8,452 429,108 473,561 477,856
Unrestricted funds Restricted funds Expendable endowment Total funds Total funds Restated
Notes to the accounts
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A summary income and expenditure account is presented in Note 18 in compliance with the Companies Act 2006. The Group has no recognised gains or losses other than those included in the consolidated statement of financial activities. All activities are continuing.

The notes on pages 58 to 92 form part of these accounts.

*During the year, the classification of charitable income and expenditure was amended to those headings seen above, as these more accurately reflect the activities undertaken by the Group. 2024 expenditure has been restated to provide comparatives for these headings. Total income and expenditure for 2024 has not changed.

.

Annual report and accounts for the year ended 31 March 2025

53

Financial statements

Parent statement of financial activities for the year ended 31 March 2025

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----- Start of picture text -----
Unrestricted Restricted Total Total
funds funds funds funds
2024
2025 2025 2025 Restated
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Income from:
Donations and legacies 35,402 – 35,402 29,639
Charitable activities 6,160 6,686 12,846 13,941
Trading activities 1,950 – 1,950 2,013
Investment income 132 – 132 604
Other income 1,423 – 1,423 1,303
Total income 45,067 6,686 51,753 47,500
Expenditure on:
Charitable activities
Applied research and policy 5,515 358 5,873 7,013
A fairer start 3,601 62 3,663 3,093
A healthy life 4,984 372 5,356 3,444
A sustainable future 4,226 79 4,305 2,912
Enterprises 13,793 12,212 26,005 12,520
Investments 5,057 750 5,807 5,287
Projects pre Strategy 2020 2,564 64 2,628 7,045
Total charitable activities 39,740 13,897 53,637 41,314
Total expenditure 39,740 13,897 53,637 41,314
Net income/(expenditure) before investment gains 5,327 (7,211) (1,884) 6,186
Net gain/(loss) on investments 802 – 802 (7,572)
Net income/(expenditure) 6,129 (7,211) (1,082) (1,386)
Transfer between funds (1,107) 1,107 - -
Net movement in funds for the year 5,022 (6,104) (1,082) (1,386)
Reconciliation of funds
Total funds brought forward 39,370 14,556 53,926 55,312
Total funds carried forward 44,392 8,452 52,844 53,926
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The company has no recognised gains or losses other than those included in the statement of financial activities.

All activities in the current and prior year relate to continuing activities.

*During the year, the classification of charitable income and expenditure was amended to those headings seen above, as these more accurately reflect the activities undertaken by the Group. 2024 expenditure has been restated to provide comparatives for these headings. Total income and expenditure for 2024 has not changed.

Annual report and accounts for the year ended 31 March 2025

54

Financial statements

Consolidated and parent charity balance sheet as at 31 March 2025

Company number: 07706036

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----- Start of picture text -----
Parent Parent
Notes Group charity Group charity
to the 2025 2025 2024 2024
accounts £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Fixed assets
Intangible fixed assets 9 5,479 108 6,205 –
Tangible fixed assets 10 24,372 874 25,130 1,025
Investments:
Investments – quoted and unquoted 11 410,150 - 399,214 -
Programme-related investments 12a 3,331 29,708 29,848 25,416
Programme- related investment in joint venture 12b 3,272 1,379 2,752 879
– share of net assets/costs
Mixed motive investment 12c - 18,280 - 17,478
Total investments 416,753 49,367 431,814 43,773
Total fixed assets 446,604 50,349 463,149 44,798
Current assets
Debtors 13 22,437 14,158 22,154 15,752
Cash and cash equivalents 20,986 2,388 16,451 5,781
Total current assets 43,423 16,546 38,605 21,533
Current liabilities
Creditors – amounts falling due within one year 14 (15,733) (13,473) (13,652) (11,352)
Net current assets 27,690 3,073 24,953 10,181
Total assets less current liabilities 474,294 53,422 488,102 54,979
Creditors – amounts falling due after one year 14 (733) (578) (10,246) (1,053)
Net assets 473,561 52,844 477,856 53,926
Charitable funds
Expendable endowment funds 16a 429,108 - 411,935 -
General funds 16a 37,484 44,392 52,868 39,370
Total charitable unrestricted funds 466,592 44,392 464,803 39,370
Restricted funds 16b 8,452 8,452 14,556 14,556
Total charitable funds 475,044 52,844 479,359 53,926
Funds retained within non-charitable joint ventures 16a (1,483) - (1,503) -
Total funds 473,561 52,844 477,856 53,926
----- End of picture text -----

The notes on pages 58 to 92 form part of these accounts.

Approved by the Board of Trustees and authorised for issue on 25 September 2025 and signed on its behalf by Ed Richards, Chair of the Board of Trustees.

Ed Richards,

Chair of the Board of Trustees of Nesta

Date: 5 December 2025

Annual report and accounts for the year ended 31 March 2025

55

Financial statements

Consolidated cash flow statement for the year ended 31 March 2025

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----- Start of picture text -----
Group Group
2025 2024
Note £’000 £’000
Cash flows used in operating activities
Net cash used in operating activities (a) (37,363) (20,551)
Cash flows from investing activities
Net cash inflows from investing activities (b) 41,968 17,005
Cash flows used in financing activities
Net cash (outflows) from financing activities (c) (15) (15)
Change in cash and cash equivalents in the reporting period 4,590 (3,561)
Cash and cash equivalents at the beginning of the reporting period 16,451 20,077
Change in cash and cash equivalents due to exchange rate movements (55) (65)
Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the reporting period 20,986 16,451
----- End of picture text -----

Cash flows used in operating activities Net cash used in operating activities Cash flows from investing activities Net cash inflows from investing activities Cash flows used in financing activities Net cash (outflows) from financing activities	Note (a) (b) (c)	Group 2025 £’000 (37,363) 41,968 (15)	Group 2024 £’000 (20,551) 17,005 (15)
Change in cash and cash equivalents in the reporting period Cash and cash equivalents at the beginning of the reporting period Change in cash and cash equivalents due to exchange rate movements Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the reporting period		4,590 16,451 (55) 20,986	(3,561) 20,077 (65) 16,451
Cash flow statement notes a) Reconciliation of net (expenditure)/ income to net cash flow from operating activities Net (expenditure)/ income (as per consolidated statement of financial activities) Depreciation charges Amortisation charges Unrealised and realised (gains)/ losses from quoted and unquoted investments Impairment of goodwill Revaluation of programme-related investments Dividends, interest and rents from investments Bank interest Interest paid and bank charges Investment management fees (Increase) in debtors (Decrease)/ increase in creditors		(4,260) 1,025 1,173 (14,056) - 1,224 (14,676) (337) 15 244 (283) (7,432) (37,363)	6,743 1,077 1,090 (20,060) 2,179 1,661 (14,190) (24) 15 468 (1,883) 2,372 (20,551)
(b) Cash flows from investing activities Dividends, interest, rent and other income from investments Bank interest Investment management fees Purchase of intangible fixed assets Purchase of property, plant and equipment Purchase of quoted and unquoted investments Purchase of programme-related investments Proceeds from sale or maturity of quoted and unquoted investments Proceeds from sale of fixed assets Proceeds from sale of intangible fixed assets Proceeds from sale of programme-related investments Movement in net assets of joint ventures Share of gains/ (losses) in joint venture		14,676 337 (244) (260) (501) (145,297) (805) 169,557 26 21 4,958 (520) 20 41,968	14,190 24 (468) - (1,147) (26,833) (6,301) 38,110 74 - (98) (545) - 17,005
(c) Cash flows from financing activities Interest paid and bank charges		(15) (15)	(15) (15)

Analysis of changes in net debt

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----- Start of picture text -----
Foreign
At start exchange At end
of year Cashflows movements of year
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Cash and cash equivalents 16,451 4,590 (55) 20,986
16,451 4,590 (55) 20,986
----- End of picture text -----

Included in cash and cash equivalents of £21.0 million (2024: £16.5 million) is a balance of £0.9 million (2024: £5.0 million) which is restricted for specific projects.

Annual report and accounts for the year ended 31 March 2025

56

Financial statements

Parent cash flow statement for the year ended 31 March 2025

	Note	Parent charity 2025 £’000	Parent charity 2024 £’000
Cash flows used in operating activities Net cash used in operating activities Cash flows from investing activities Net cash (outflows) from investing activities Cash flows used in financing activities Net cash (outflows) from financing activities	(a) (b) (c)	2,730 (6,109) (14)	5,459 (6,598) (13)
Change in cash and cash equivalents in the reporting period		(3,393)	(1,152)
Cash and cash equivalents at the beginning of the reporting period		5,781	6,933
Change in cash and cash equivalents due to exchange rate movements		–	–
Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the reporting period		2,388	5,781
Cash flow statement notes a) Reconciliation of net (expenditure) to net cash flow from operating activities Net (expenditure) (as per statement of financial activities) Depreciation charges Amortisation charges Revaluation of programme-related investments Dividends, interest and rents from investments Bank interest Interest paid and bank charges Decrease/ (increase) in debtors Increase in creditors		(1,082) 434 46 211 (126) (6) 14 1,594 1,645 2,730	(1,386) 510 - 8,909 (604) - 13 (3,970) 1,987 5,459
(b) Cash flows from investing activities Dividends, interest and rents from investments Bank interest Purchase of intangible fixed assets Purchase of property, plant and equipment Purchase of programme-related investments Proceeds from sale of fixed assets Proceeds from sale of intangible fixed assets Proceeds from sale of programme-related investments		127 6 (49) (409) (6,142) 2 19 337 (6,109)	604 – – (647) (6,738) – – 183 (6,598)
(c) Cash flows from financing activities Interest paid and bank charges		(14) (14)	(13) (13)

Analysis of changes in net debt

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----- Start of picture text -----
Foreign
At start exchange At end
of year Cashflows movements of year
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Cash and cash equivalents 5,781 (3,393) - 2,388
5,781 (3,393) - 2,388
----- End of picture text -----

Included in cash and cash equivalents of £2.4 million (2024: £5.8 million) is a balance of £0.9 million (2024: £5.0 million) which is restricted for specific projects.

Annual report and accounts for the year ended 31 March 2025

57

Financial statements

1. Accounting policies

a. Basis of preparation

The financial statements are prepared under the historical cost convention, modified by the revaluation of certain financial assets as specified below. They have been prepared on a going concern basis and in accordance with and in compliance with: (i) FRS 102, the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland; (ii) Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) ‘Charities SORP (FRS 102)’ issued by the Charity Commission; and (iii) Companies Act 2006.

The financial statements are presented in sterling, which is also the functional currency of the Group. The amounts are presented to the nearest £1,000.

b. Going concern

As Nesta is able to draw down cash from The Nesta Trust as required within the approved funding envelope, the trustees have concluded that there is a reasonable expectation that the Group has adequate resources to continue activities for the foreseeable future and no material uncertainties have been identified in respect of going concern.

The trustees have reviewed the current cash position of the Group alongside forecasts for the coming financial year and beyond and have concluded that the Group has adequate resources to cover the forecast expenditure for at least 12 months from the approval of these financial statements. Further detail can be found in the accounts of each subsidiary.

They have therefore adopted the going concern basis in preparing the financial statements.

c. Basis of consolidation

The consolidated financial statements incorporate the results of Nesta and all its subsidiary undertakings including The Nesta Trust, from the date that control commences to the date that it ceases.

The Trust holds investment assets previously held by the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts ('NESTA') which was abolished on 1 April 2012. The assets of the Trust provide income and capital to be applied by Nesta as sole Trustee to further the objects of the Trust. As the sole Trustee of the Trust, Nesta is considered to control the Trust which operationally means Nesta is responsible for the Trust’s investment policy. It is for this reason that the accounts of the Trust have been consolidated with the accounts of Nesta.

Subsidiary undertakings are consolidated on a line-byline basis using the acquisition method of accounting in accordance with Section 9 Consolidated and Separate Financial Statements of FRS 102.

Details of Nesta’s subsidiary undertakings can be found in Note 15.

Joint ventures that are not held as part of an investment portfolio are consolidated using the Gross Equity method of accounting in accordance with Section 15 ‘Investments in Joint Ventures’ of FRS 102. Details of Nesta’s joint ventures can be found in Note 12b.

The Group applies the exemption contained in Section 15 ‘Investments in Joint Ventures’ of FRS 102 so that where joint ventures and associates are held as part of an investment portfolio, they are included within investment assets.

When a joint venture becomes a subsidiary in the period, it is accounted for as a subsidiary from the date that control commences to the date that it ceases.

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Annual report and accounts for the year ended 31 March 2025

58

Financial statements

1. Accounting policies (continued)

d. Fund accounting

The general fund consists of unrestricted funds that are available for the furtherance of the objects of the charity at the discretion of the trustees.

Restricted funds are subject to specific restrictions as applied by programme funders.

balance sheet date, income represents the value of the service provided to date based on proportion of the total contract value. Where payments are received from customers in advance of services provided, the amounts are recorded as deferred income and included as part of creditors due within the year.

f. Expenditure

Where Nesta provides match-funding or programme support on projects, total expenditure is shown in the restricted fund and a transfer from the general fund to the restricted fund is made to account for Nesta’s share of expenditure.

The expendable endowment fund relates to the funds of the Trust. These funds are held without distinction as to capital and income and can be applied in furtherance of the objects of the Trust. The Trust makes an annual transfer to Nesta to deliver its charitable aims as detailed in the reserves policy.

e. Income

Income is recognised in the consolidated statement of financial activities in the period in which the Group is entitled to receipt and where the amount can be measured with reasonable accuracy, and where receipt is probable.

Grant income is recognised in the consolidated statement of financial activities when the Group has entitlement to the funds, it is probable the income will be received, the amount can be measured reliably and any performance conditions attached to the grants have been fully met. Where performance-related conditions have only been partially met, income is recognised to that extent with the balance deferred until these conditions have been satisfied.

Where there is a repayment of income that has been previously recognised or not all income has been drawn down at the end of a project, this is recognised as negative income in the relevant period.

Investment income includes interest and dividends from investment assets, deposits and a joint venture, with any associated tax credits or recoverable taxation included in the consolidated statement of financial activities on an accruals basis.

Income from trading activities is generated on nonprimary purpose trading activities of the trading subsidiaries Nesta Enterprises Limited, Behavioural Insights Limited ('BIT') and Nesta Challenges. This represents the value of services provided under contracts to the extent that there is a right to consideration and is recorded at the value of the consideration due. Where a contract has only been partially completed at the

Expenditure is accounted for on an accruals basis.

Expenditure on raising funds includes both trading activities and investment management expenditure. Trading expenditure is incurred on non-primary purpose trading activities of the trading subsidiaries Nesta Enterprises Limited, Behavioural Insights Limited ('BIT') and Nesta Challenges. Investment management costs consist of investment fund manager fees paid in cash as well as those that have been grossed up where they are offset against the fund’s value rather than payable in cash, dilution levies, investment consultancy and custodian fees.

The categories defined by the trustees for the purposes of organisational management are – applied research and policy, a fairer start, a healthy life, a sustainable future, enterprises, investments and projects pre Strategy 2020 (2024: a fairer start, a healthy life, a sustainable future, central programmes and devolved nations, committed programme delivery, enterprises, investments in furtherance of the Group's charitable objectives and practices).

Grants payable are recognised as expenditure in the consolidated statement of financial activities on the date when a grant agreement is signed or equivalent obligation created less any awards cancelled or refunded, where there are no performance-related obligations that are required to be fulfilled under the terms of the grants. Grants awarded but not yet paid are recorded as a liability in the consolidated balance sheet. Where grants paid are selected to be converted to an equity holding in the grantee organisation by virtue of grant conditions being met, on the date where there is a binding contract with investment terms agreed by both parties, grant expenditure is reversed and an investment asset is recognised and the asset valued in accordance with the Group's investment valuation policies.

Commitments or approvals to fund specific projects not yet signed by Nesta are disclosed by way of note (see Note 19).

Non-grant direct costs include staffing, programme delivery partner costs, workshop event costs, commissioned research and evaluation, and any other direct costs attributable to a specific activity.

Annual report and accounts for the year ended 31 March 2025

59

Financial statements

1. Accounting policies (continued)

Support costs include costs shared by all activities. They include the costs of the office of the CEO, communications, front of house, facilities, finance, legal, information technology, and human resources. Support costs also include the costs related to governance which are costs attributable to maintaining the public accountability of the charitable group and ensuring compliance with regulation and good practice. Costs incurred by trustees, internal and external audit costs and legal fees are included within governance costs.

Irrecoverable VAT incurred is allocated to the expenditure category to which it relates.

Redundancy and termination payments are recognised when there is a demonstrable commitment that cannot be realistically withdrawn.

g. Support costs – allocation

Support costs are allocated to each area of programme activity on bases appropriate to the activity concerned. These drivers include ratio of direct costs and headcount. Further detail is given in Note 7a.

i. Tangible fixed assets and depreciation

Property, plant and equipment are capitalised at their historic cost and stated at cost less depreciation. Assets costing less than £500 are expensed in the year of purchase.

Depreciation is calculated on a straight-line basis over the expected useful life of the assets as follows:

	>	leasehold property	over the remaining
		and improvements	life of the lease
	>	plant and machinery	seven to eighteen
	>	office equipment,	years five years
		fixtures and fittings
	>	computer hardware	three years

Any diminution or impairment in value is charged to the consolidated statement of financial activities under charitable activities.

j. Investment assets – quoted and unquoted

h. Intangible fixed assets and amortisation

Goodwill included in intangible assets represents the excess of the cost of Behavioural Insights Limited (BIT) over the fair value of the Group’s share of the net identifiable assets of BIT at the date of acquisition, 10 December 2021.

Goodwill on acquisitions of joint ventures and associates is included in the related equity accounted investment value (Note 9).

Any diminution or impairment in value is charged to the statement of financial activities as charitable expenditure.

Amortisation is calculated on a straight-line basis. As the useful life of goodwill cannot be reliably estimated, it is being written off over a period of ten years as determined by the trustees.

At the beginning of the year, computer software was transferred from tangible assets (Note 10) to intangible assets (Note 9). Amortisation is being charged over three to five years, or the life of the lease.

Investment assets include quoted and unquoted investments. Nesta holds its investment assets on trust without distinction between capital and income, applying them in furtherance of its objects. Assets held by The Nesta Trust are classed as an expendable endowment.

Cash and short-term deposits and investments to be held less than 12 months are presented in the balance sheet as current assets. All other financial assets are presented as fixed assets. Deferred investments and loans represent the portion of commitments which remain undrawn but draw down has been requested at the balance sheet date. The corresponding commitment is recognised under current liabilities.

Loans are recognised as financial assets when repayment of the loan or the option to convert to equity has not expired by the balance sheet date. The loans are included in fixed assets except where repayment is expected within 12 months of the balance sheet date, when they are included as current assets.

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Annual report and accounts for the year ended 31 March 2025

60

Financial statements

1. Accounting policies (continued)

The carrying value of all investments is at market value except where we are unable to obtain a reliable estimate of market value. Unrealised changes in value between accounting periods are charged or credited to the statement of financial activities. For financial assets for which there is no quoted market, market value is established by using valuation guidelines as detailed below.

I. Valuation – quoted investments

The market values of quoted investments are based on externally reported bid prices at the balance sheet date.

Equity investments, high yield bonds, and property trusts are held in pooled funds and are stated at market value, being the market value of the underlying investments held. These valuations are provided by the relevant fund manager.

II. Valuation – unquoted investments

Private equity investments are held through funds managed by private equity managers. As there is no identifiable market price for private equity funds, these funds are included at the most recent valuations provided by the private equity managers, adjusted for cash calls and distributions.

Where a valuation is not available at the balance sheet date, the most recent valuation from the private equity manager is used, adjusted for cash flows between the most recent valuation and the balance sheet date.

Unquoted investments, directly held as part of the Group's trading portfolio are initially recognised at cost and subsequently held at the investment’s fair value, being the expected market value of a sale between two knowledgeable counterparties. When determining the fair value of the assessment, the directors make the following assumptions on the nature and instrument of the investment:

• Where an investment has held a successful external investment funding round within the last 12 months, the value of this funding round is deemed to be a reasonable approximation of the market value of the investment.

• Where a funding round took place more than 12 months before the financial year end, then the fair value is assessed through the review of the performance of the business and any significant deviations from the expected performance.

• Where an investment has been made through a convertible loan note instrument, then the fair value is deemed to be the cost of the loan note principal until the date of the conversion event, at which point the fair value will be revised based on the pricing of the conversion event. Due to the uncertainty around the timing of the conversion event then this is deemed to be a reasonable value.

• Where a third party valuation report is available then the fair value of the investment is calculated based on the valuation within the report and the percentage holding of the investment.

Transaction costs incurred by the Group and management support costs are not included in valuations and are charged to expenditure in the period in which they are incurred.

III. Valuation – investment property

Physical investment property assets are revalued annually by an independent external property valuer. The investment property at 58 Victoria Embankment is owned by The Nesta Trust. The proportion of this property that is leased to the Group for use by Nesta is accounted for as a leasehold asset in the consolidated accounts. Investments in an investment property fund are valued at the market values, being the externally reported bid prices at the balance sheet date.

IV. Treatment – unquoted investments

Investments, loans or contributions to funds to date are recognised in full in the balance sheet. Undrawn commitments are disclosed by way of Note 19.

Unrealised changes in value between accounting periods are reflected in the consolidated statement of financial activities.

Financial assets are derecognised when the rights to receive cash flows from the investments have expired or have been transferred with all risks and rewards of ownership.

Annual report and accounts for the year ended 31 March 2025

61

Financial statements

1. Accounting policies (continued)

k. Investment assets – programme-related investments

Unquoted equity and similar programme-related investments are held at cost, less any provision for diminution in value, as Nesta is unable to obtain a reliable estimate of fair value. Programme-related investments that are loans are accounted for at the outstanding amount of the loan less any provision for unrecoverable amounts. Any diminution or impairment in value is charged to the consolidated statement of financial activities under charitable activities.

During the year, management conducted a reassessment of its investment classifications in line with the Charities SORP (FRS 102). Following this review, investments with a value of £21.1 million previously classified as ProgrammeRelated Investments (PRIs) have been reclassified as Financial Investments, as they are no longer held primarily to further the charity’s objectives.

This reclassification, effective from 1 April 2024, reflects a refined assessment of the investment purpose and management approach, rather than a correction of a prior-year misstatement. The financial impact is limited to a presentation change, with no impact on valuation methodology.

Investments, loans or contributions to funds that have been contracted but not yet drawn down, and grant agreements not yet signed by Nesta by the balance sheet date, are shown as commitments in Note 19.

n. Significant estimates

The preparation of financial statements requires management to make estimates and judgements that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities as well as the disclosure of contingent liabilities and the carrying value of goodwill at the balance sheet date. Actual outcomes could differ from those estimates. This is especially the case of the valuation of the Group’s investment in early-stage companies which is an inherently volatile and uncertain process. However, the valuation guidelines applied are considered to be the best estimate of market value.

An estimated value of unquoted investments in earlystage companies is established by using industrystandard valuation techniques. These techniques provide for investments to be carried at cost unless there is information indicating an impairment or sufficiently clear evidence to support an increase in valuation.

An internal valuation exercise was performed to obtain a valuation of Behavioural Insights Limited as at 31 March 2025. The valuation was based on expected future cash flows in accordance with Financial Reporting Standards ('FRS') 102. Any change in value is charged to the statement of financial activities as an investment impairment as a gain/ (loss) on investment.

The investment property, 58 Victoria Embankment, was revalued at the year end by an independent qualified property valuer. 51.3% of 58 Victoria Embankment relates to investment property in the Group accounts.

l. Investment assets – joint venture

Investment assets are valued on an asset by asset basis.

Joint ventures are held at cost, less any provision for diminution in value, or uplift based on current available external information. Any change in value is charged to the statement of financial activities under charitable activities.

Amortisation is calculated on a straight-line basis. As the useful life of goodwill cannot be reliably estimated, it is being written off over a period of ten years as chosen by the trustees.

m. Investment assets – mixed motive

Mixed motive investments are held at cost, less any provision for diminution in value, with fair value being reviewed annually, and are contingent upon specific milestones being achieved. Any diminution or impairment in value is charged to the statement of financial activities as an investment impairment as a gain/ (loss) on investment.

Annual report and accounts for the year ended 31 March 2025

62

Financial statements

1. Accounting policies (continued)

o. Debtors receivable, creditors, provisions and contingent liabilities

Debtors receivable are recognised at fair value less any provision for bad debt. A provision for bad debt is established when there is objective evidence that the debt will not be collected according to the original terms.

Creditors are recognised when the Group has a present legal or constructive obligation as a result of past events, it is probable that an outflow of resources will be required to settle the obligation, and the amount can be reliably estimated.

Provisions are recognised when the Group has a present legal or constructive obligation as a result of past events, it is probable that an outflow of resources will be required to settle the obligation, and the amount can be reliably estimated.

The amount recognised as a provision is the best estimate of the consideration required to settle the present obligation at the end of the reporting period, taking into account the risks and uncertainties surrounding the obligation.

Where there are significant obligations which do not meet the requirements for recognition as a provision set out in Section 21 ‘Provisions and Contingencies’ of FRS 102 these are disclosed as a note to the accounts (see Note 19).

The Group recognises a provision for annual leave accrued by employees as a result of services rendered in the current period, and which employees are entitled to carry forward and use in the next financial year. The provision is measured at the salary cost payable for the period of absence.

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p. Pension costs

The Group operates defined contribution schemes. The amount charged to the consolidated statement of financial activities in respect of pension costs and other postretirement benefits is the contributions payable in the year.

Differences between contributions payable in the year and contributions actually paid are shown as either accruals or prepayments in the balance sheet.

q. Taxation

Nesta and The Nesta Trust are charities within the meaning of Para 1 Schedule 6 Finance Act 2010. Accordingly they are potentially exempt from taxation in respect of income or capital gains within categories covered by Chapter 3 of Part 11 of the Corporation Tax Act 2010 or Section 256 of the Taxation of Chargeable Gains Act 1992, to the extent that such income or gains are applied exclusively to charitable purposes.

No tax charge arose in the period for Nesta and The Nesta Trust.

The subsidiary companies, excluding BIT, make qualifying donations of all distributable taxable profit to Nesta. No corporation tax liability on these subsidiaries arises in the accounts.

Tax arises in the accounts of BIT, and is included within expenditure from trading activities in the statement of financial activities. Current tax, including UK corporate tax and foreign tax, is provided at amounts expected to be paid (or recovered) using the tax rates and laws that have been enacted or substantively enacted by the balance sheet date.

Deferred tax is recognised in respect of all timing differences that have originated but not reversed at the balance sheet date where transactions or events that result in an obligation to pay more tax in the future or a right to pay less tax in the future have occurred at the balance sheet date. Timing differences are differences between the Company’s taxable profits and its results as stated in the financial statements that arise from the inclusion of gains and losses in tax assessments in periods different from those in which they were recognised in the financial statements.

A net deferred tax asset is regarded as recoverable and therefore recognised only to the extent that, on the basis of all available evidence, it can be regarded as more likely than not that there will be suitable taxable profits from which the future reversal of the underlying timing differences can be deducted.

Annual report and accounts for the year ended 31 March 2025

63

Financial statements

1. Accounting policies (continued)

r. Exchange gains and losses

The statutory financial statements are presented in pounds sterling, the functional and presentational currency. Foreign currency transactions are translated using the exchange rates prevailing at the date of settlement. Realised and unrealised exchange gains and losses are recognised in the consolidated statement of financial activities.

On consolidation of BIT, the results of overseas operations are translated into sterling at rates approximating to those ruling when the transactions took place. All assets and liabilities of overseas operations are translated at the rate ruling at the reporting date..

s. Operating leases

Leases where the lessor retains a significant portion of the risks and rewards of ownership are classified as operating leases. Payments made under operating leases (net of any incentives received from the lessor) are charged to the consolidated statement of financial activities on a straight-line basis over the period of the lease.

Transactions between all group undertakings (parent charity, subsidiaries, associates and joint ventures) are also disclosed in compliance with 23.4 of the Charities SORP (FRS 102).

u. Financial instruments

The Group has only basic financial instruments. These comprise fixed asset investments measured at fair value through profit or loss along with other financial assets which comprise cash, group debtors and other debtors and financial liabilities which comprise trade creditors and other creditors, measured at amortised cost.

v. Cash and cash equivalents

Cash and cash equivalents include cash in hand and deposits with banks. Cash held by investment managers is classified as investments as it is not immediately accessible.

t. Related party transactions

Transactions with related parties are disclosed in the notes to these financial statements. the Group’s policy is for all trustees, non-trustee committee members, executive directors and senior direct reports to executive directors, to declare interests and related party transactions on appointment and at least annually. Declared interests are recorded in the Register of Interests and these are reviewed by the Audit and Risk Committee.

Annual report and accounts for the year ended 31 March 2025

64

Financial statements

2. Investment income

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----- Start of picture text -----
Group Group
2025 2024
£’000 £’000
Quoted investments:
Interest and dividends receivable 2,834 3,600
Total income from quoted investments 2,834 3,600
Unquoted investments:
Interest and dividends receivable 11,714 10,590
Total income from unquoted investments 11,714 10,590
Bank interest 337 24
Other investment income 128 –
Total investment income 15,013 14,214
----- End of picture text -----

Included in total investment income of £15.0 million (2024: £14.2 million) is £0.2 million (2024: £0.4 million) unrestricted income and £14.8 million (2024: £13.8 million) expendable endowment income.

3. Income from charitable activities

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----- Start of picture text -----
2025 2025 2025 2025 2024 2024 2024 2024
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Note 3a Note 3a
Applied research and policy (35) (94) 142 13 67 (30) 33 70
A fairer start - 80 - 80 – – – -
A healthy life 50 - - 50 5 873 – 878
A sustainable future - 28 32 60 (7) – – (7)
Enterprises 375 5,712 5,491 11,578 5,127 294 4,360 9,781
Investments - 255 92 347 – – 81 81
Projects pre Strategy 2020 (450) (29) 21 (458) 10 30 2 42
Other - 147 114 261 - 2,433 - 2,433
Total income from charitable activities (60) 6,099 5,892 11,931 5,202 3,600 4,476 13,278
Funding from government bodies Funding from non-government bodies Other charitable activity income Group total Funding from government bodies Restated * Funding from non-government bodies Restated * Other charitable activity income Restated * Group total Restated
----- End of picture text -----*

Other charitable activity income includes income from charity consultancy services, monitoring and product sales.

Included in total charitable income of £11.9 million (2024: £13.3 million) is £5.2 million (2024: £3.7 million) unrestricted income and £6.7 million (2024: £9.6 million) restricted income.

*During the year, the classification of charitable income was amended to those headings seen above, as these more accurately reflect the activities undertaken by the Group. 2024 expenditure has been restated to provide comparatives for these headings. Total income and expenditure for 2024 has not changed.

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Annual report and accounts for the year ended 31 March 2025

65

Financial statements

3. Income from charitable activities (continued)

3a. Restricted funding from government bodies

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Group Group
2025 2024
£’000 £’000
Arts and Humanities Research Council, AHRC - 10
Arts Council England, ACE - 35
Centre for Industrial Technological Development (CDTI) 50 -
Department for Business and Trade, DBT [previously Department for Business, Energy and Industrial - 875
Strategy (BEIS)]
Department for Health and Social Care, DHSC - 270
Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, DSIT - 1,900
Food Standards Scotland 50 -
Global Affairs Canada (51) -
Innovate UK, UKRI 341 187
Scottish Government - 5
-
Surrey County Council (7)
UK Space Agency - 1,542
-
United Kingdom Humanitarian Innovation Hub, UKHIH, Collective Crisis Intelligence (35)
United States Agency for International Development, USAID - 420
-
Welsh European Funding Office (450)
Total restricted funding from government bodies (60) 5,202
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Negative items above relate to income that has been previously recognised and has now been reversed as it is no longer falling due.

4. Income from other trading activities

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Group Group
2025 2024
£’000 £’000
Rental income 1,369 1,547
Income from trading
Consultancy 536 875
Venue hire and other 95 –
Trading subsidiary income – Behavioural Insights Limited 24,872 22,339
Total income from other trading activities 26,872 24,761
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Trading income above all relates to unrestricted funds for current and prior year.

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Financial statements

5. Other income

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Group Group
2025 2024
£’000 £’000
Gain on disposal of programme-related investment 1,341 –
Events and workshops fees 104 42
Impact fund management fees 45 117
Total other income 1,490 159
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Other income above all relates to unrestricted funds for current and prior year.

6. Expenditure on raising funds

6a. Trading activities

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Group Group
2025 2024
£’000 £’000
Trading activities expenditure – subsidiaries 22,978 23,193
Total trading activity expenditure 22,978 23,193
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Trading activities expenditure above all relates to unrestricted funds for current and prior year.

6b. Investment management costs

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Group Group
2025 2024
£’000 £’000
Investment manager fees 217 403
Custodian fees 27 65
Total investment management costs 244 468
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The investment management costs are the direct fees paid to intermediaries.

Of the total £0.2 million (2024: £0.5 million) investment management costs above, £0.2 million (2024: £0.4 million) relates to expendable endowment funds and £0.0 million (2024: £0.1 million) relates to unrestricted funds.

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Financial statements

7. Expenditure on charitable activities

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----- Start of picture text -----
2025 2025 2025 2025 2024 2024 2024 2024
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Note 7b Note 7a Note 7b Note 7a
Applied research and policy 30 2,821 2,626 5,477 - 2,345 4,436 6,781
A fairer start 51 1,796 1,651 3,498 472 1,218 1,346 3,036
A healthy life 1,100 1,993 2,075 5,168 - 1,745 1,581 3,326
A sustainable future - 2,182 1,875 4,057 22 1,474 1,351 2,847
Enterprises 11,090 7,485 6,484 25,059 2,266 5,460 5,348 13,074
Investments 210 2,585 1,788 4,583 - 3,664 2,533 6,197
Projects pre Strategy 2020 - 1,382 1,176 2,558 2,412 2,074 2,319 6,805
Total charitable activities 12,481 20,244 17,675 50,400 5,172 17,980 18,914 42,066
During the year, the classification of charitable expenditure was amended to those headings seen above, as these more
accurately reflect the activities undertaken by the Group. 2024 expenditure has been restated to provide comparatives for
these headings. Total income and expenditure for 2024 has not changed.
Charitable expenditure of £50.4 million (2024: £42.1 million) includes £36.0 million (2024: £32.7 million) unrestricted expenditure,
£13.9 million (2024: £8.9 million) restricted expenditure and £0.5 million (2024: £0.5 million) endowment expenditure.
7a. Support costs
Support costs have been allocated to charitable activity areas as follows:
2025 2025 2025 2025 2024 2024 2024 2024
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Applied research and policy 2,025 544 57 2,626 3,459 916 61 4,436
A fairer start 1,262 353 36 1,651 642 660 44 1,346
A healthy life 1,424 590 61 2,075 853 682 46 1,581
A sustainable future 1,414 417 44 1,875 728 584 39 1,351
Enterprises 2,574 3,546 364 6,484 2,129 3,017 202 5,348
Investments 1,201 533 54 1,788 1,006 1,431 96 2,533
Projects pre Strategy 2020 885 264 27 1,176 450 1,752 117 2,319
Total support costs 10,785 6,247 643 17,675 9,267 9,042 605 18,914
Grant making Non-grant direct cost Allocated support costs Group total Grant making Restated * Non-grant direct cost Restated * Allocated support costs Restated * Group total Restated
Support staff costs Premises, technology and other costs Governance Group total Support staff costs Restated * Premises, technology and other costs Restated * Governance Restated * Group total Restated
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*During the year, the classification of charitable expenditure was amended to those headings seen above, as these more accurately reflect the activities undertaken by the Group. 2024 expenditure has been restated to provide comparatives for these headings. Total income and expenditure for 2024 has not changed.

The basis for allocation of support costs and governance is as follows:	The basis for allocation of support costs and governance is as follows:
Support staff costs Other support and governance costs	Allocated based on headcount Allocated on the ratio of direct costs of each area

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68

Financial statements

7. Expenditure on charitable activities (continued)

7b. Grants

Included in the cost of charitable activities are grants payable. Grants of £50,000 and above are detailed below.

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Grants to
institutions
2025 External/Nesta
Recipient £’000 funded Programme
Sysmex Astrego 5,000 External Longitude Prize on Antimicrobial Resistance
Sysmex Astrego 3,000 Nesta funded Longitude Prize on Antimicrobial Resistance
Fairshare Educational Foundation T/A 1,100 Nesta funded ShareAction – Healthy Markets Initiative
ShareAction
Animorph Co-Operative 300 External Longitude Prize on Dementia
Associação Fraunhofer Portugal Research 300 External Longitude Prize on Dementia
Supersense Technologies Ltd 300 External Longitude Prize on Dementia
Western Sydney University 300 External Longitude Prize on Dementia
Clairvoyant Networks, Inc. 300 External Longitude Prize on Dementia
Arts & Culture Finance 200 Nesta funded Arts & Culture Finance
Naicker Scientific Ltd 150 Nesta funded UKSA – Aqua Lunar Water Challenge
Cc Informatics Ltd 100 External Manchester Prize
Phytoform Labs Ltd 100 External Manchester Prize
Greyparrot.Ai Ltd 100 External Manchester Prize
Polaron Ltd 100 External Manchester Prize
Hr Wallingford Limited 100 External Manchester Prize
Transhumanity Ltd 100 External Manchester Prize
EvoPhase Ltd 100 External Manchester Prize
University Of Warwick 100 External Manchester Prize
UKCRIC 100 External Manchester Prize
Open Climate Fix Limited 100 External Manchester Prize
Redspace Ltd 100 Nesta funded UKSA – Aqua Lunar Water Challenge
Queen Mary University Of London 50 Nesta funded UKSA – Aqua Lunar Water Challenge
Grants below £50,000 (number of grants 391
to institutions 16)
Grants cancelled in the year (10)
Total grants 12,481
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There were no grants to individuals in the year.

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69

Financial statements

7. Expenditure on charitable activities (continued)

7b. Grants prior year

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Grants to
institutions
2024 External/Nesta
Recipient £’000 funded Programme
Barnardo's 1,600 External Prism the Gift Fund
London School Of Economics And Political 271 External Longitude Prize on Dementia
Science
University Of Exeter 260 External Prism the Gift Fund
National Art Collections Fund 260 External Central Commissioning Fund – Early Years
Museum Innovation (Art Fund partnership project)
Khulisa 203 External Prism the Gift Fund
Rsa 106 External Revealing Social Capital
Stripe Partners 100 External Revealing Social Capital
Olive Ai Limited 80 External Longitude Prize on Dementia
Care City CIC 80 External Longitude Prize on Dementia
Memory Lane Games 80 External Longitude Prize on Dementia
Circadian Lighting Ltd 80 External Longitude Prize on Dementia
Western Sydney University 80 External Longitude Prize on Dementia
Social Care Institute For Excellence 80 External Longitude Prize on Dementia
Eargym Ltd 80 External Longitude Prize on Dementia
Miicare 80 External Longitude Prize on Dementia
Amicus Brain Innovations, Inc. 80 External Longitude Prize on Dementia
Ulster University 80 External Longitude Prize on Dementia
Associação Fraunhofer Portugal Research 80 External Longitude Prize on Dementia
University Of Edinburgh 80 External Longitude Prize on Dementia
Cardiff Metropolitan University 80 External Longitude Prize on Dementia
Northumbria University 80 External Longitude Prize on Dementia
Lucid Inc. 80 External Longitude Prize on Dementia
Kite Toronto Rehabilitation Institute 80 External Longitude Prize on Dementia
Animorph Co-Operative 80 External Longitude Prize on Dementia
La Guapa Media 80 External Longitude Prize on Dementia
Supersense Technologies Ltd 80 External Longitude Prize on Dementia
Clairvoyant Networks, Inc. 80 External Longitude Prize on Dementia
Khalifa University 80 External Longitude Prize on Dementia
Skyjoy Ltd. (Formerly Chroma Lighting) 80 External Longitude Prize on Dementia
Sheffield Hallam University 80 External Longitude Prize on Dementia
Simon Care Management Corporation 80 External Longitude Prize on Dementia
Neighbourly Lab Ltd 65 External Revealing Social Capital
National Art Collections Fund 64 External Central Commissioning Fund
University of Cambridge 56 External Central Commissioning Fund – Playtime with
Books Phase 2
University of Oxford 50 External A fairer start
Grants below £50,000 (number of grants to 274
institutions 50)
Grants cancelled in the year (57)
Total grants 5,172
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There were no grants to individuals in the year.

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70

Financial statements

7c. Auditor’s fees

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Group Group
2025 2024
£’000 £’000
External audit (RSM UK Audit LLP) 269 241
Internal audit (Grant Thornton) – 34
Other assurance services – –
Tax advisory services 35 33
Total auditor fees 304 308
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External audit fees incurred for Nesta, the parent charity, were £0.07 million (2024: £0.06 million) excluding VAT.

8. Employees for parent and group

8a. Staff costs

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Group Group
2025 2024
£’000 £’000
Salaries and emoluments of directly employed staff 32,327 30,186
Social security costs 3,532 3,205
Pension costs 2,863 2,646
Agency/temporary staff costs 1,022 1,165
Other staff costs 709 647
Total 40,453 37,849
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Included in staff costs above is £15.9 million (2024: £16.3 million) relating to Behavioural Insights Limited, a 100% owned trading subsidiary.

The increase in staff costs is due to a larger number of staff in higher salary bands, cost of living increase awarded, increase in secondee costs (£467k) and increase in end of service costs (£547k).

Termination benefits payments totalling £0.2 million (2024: £0.2 million) were made in the year to other departing staff as part of compensation packages, primarily being compensation for loss of office.

8b. Staff numbers

The following shows average headcount staff numbers during the year.

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Group Group
2025 2024
Restated
Applied research and policy 33 74
A fairer start 21 14
A healthy life 23 18
A sustainable future 23 16
Enterprises 42 45
Investments 20 21
Projects pre Strategy 2020 15 10
Support 115 74
Trading 220 242
Total 512 514
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The average full time equivalent for 2025 is 481 (2024: 482).

Behavioural Insights Limited accounts for 200 (2024: 222) of this full time equivalent figure, and the 220 (2024: 242) trading headcount above.

*During the year, the classification of staff was amended to those headings seen above, as these more accurately reflect the activities undertaken by the Group. 2024 expenditure has been restated to provide comparatives for these headings. Total staff numbers for 2024 has not changed.

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71

Financial statements

8. Employees for parent and Group (continued)

8c. Higher earners

The number of employees who earned remuneration (salaries, bonus and benefits in kind) of more then £60,000 in the year was as follows:

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----- Start of picture text -----
Group Group
2025 2024
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	Group 2025	Group 2024
£60,000 – £69,999 £70,000 – £79,999 £80,000 – £89,999 £90,000 – £99,999 £100,000 – £109,999 £110,000 – £119,999 £120,000 – £129,999 £130,000 – £139,999 £140,000 – £149,999 £150,000 – £159,999 £160,000 – £169,999 £170,000 – £179,999 £180,000 – £189,999 £190,000 – £199,999 £200,000 – £209,999 £260,000 – £269,999 £280,000 – £289,999	57 29 23 9 7 7 2 2 5 1 1 2 2 - - 1 -	29 35 23 7 7 6 3 2 3 1 - 1 - 1 - - 1

Of staff with remuneration over £60,000, 148 (2024: 119) are members of the defined contribution pension scheme. Employer contributions to the scheme related to staff in these salary ranges during the year were £1.2 million (2024: £1.0 million).

8d. Key management personnel

The annual salaries (including benefits, termination payments and any bonuses) of the Executive Team as at 31 March 2025 totalled £1.6 million (2024: £1.6 million). The Executive Team are considered to be key management personnel.

The Executive Team are entitled to the same flexible benefits and contributions to the pension scheme as all staff. Nesta offers a defined contribution pension scheme with the contribution from Nesta ranging from a minimum of 8 per cent up to 12 per cent of salary, depending on the level of contributions made by the employee. Employer pension contributions for the Executive Team amounted to £0.2 million (2024: £0.2 million) for the year. Employer National Insurance contributions were £0.2 million (2024: £0.2 million).

Therefore the total remuneration for key management personnel was £2.0 million (2024: £2.0 million).

8e. Pensions

Defined contribution schemes are offered across the Group. The Group's total contributions made in respect of the year, for all schemes, totalled £2.9 million (2024: £2.6 million), including outstanding contributions of £0.3 million (2024: £0.3 million) at the balance sheet date.

Nesta offers employees 8 per cent up to 12 per cent contribution, on a defined contribution basis, to a personal pension scheme or group stakeholder scheme. Nesta's total contributions made in respect of the year, for all schemes, totalled £1.9 million (2024: £1.7 million), including outstanding contributions of £0.2 million (2024: £0.2 million) at the balance sheet date.

Defined contribution pension schemes are operated by the BIT Group for employees (UK and overseas). The assets of the schemes are held separately from those of the BIT Group in independently administered funds. The pension charge represents contributions payable by the BIT Group to the funds and amounted to £0.9 million (2024: £0.9 million). Contributions amounting to £0.1 million (2024: £0.08 million) were payable to the funds and are included in creditors.

8f. Trustee remuneration

None of the Trustees received remuneration for performance of their role as Trustees during the year. Travel expenses of £470 (2024: £nil) were reimbursed to one (2024: nil) trustee (s) during the year.

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72

Financial statements

9. Intangible fixed assets

Group intangible fixed assets

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----- Start of picture text -----
Computer
Goodwill software Group total
£’000 £’000 £’000
Cost
Opening balance as at 1 April 2024 10,895 - 10,895
Transfer from tangible fixed assets (Note 10) - 791 791
Additions - 260 260
-
Disposals (391) (391)
Closing balance as at 31 March 2025 10,895 660 11,555
Amortisation and impairment
Opening balance as at 1 April 2024 4,690 - 4,690
Transfer from tangible fixed assets (Note 10) - 583 583
Amortisation for the year 1,090 83 1,173
-
Amortisation on disposals (370) (370)
Closing balance as at 31 March 2025 5,780 296 6,076
Net book value 2025 5,115 364 5,479
Net book value 2024 6,205 - 6,205
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Parent charity intangible fixed assets

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----- Start of picture text -----
Computer Parent
software charity total
£’000 £’000
Cost
- -
Opening balance as at 1 April 2024
Transfer from tangible fixed assets (Note 10) 490 490
Additions 49 49
Disposals (352) (352)
Closing balance as at 31 March 2025 187 187
Amortisation
- -
Opening balance as at 1 April 2024
Transfer from tangible fixed assets (Note 10) 366 366
Amortisation for the year 46 46
Amortisation on disposals (333) (333)
Closing balance as at 31 March 2025 79 79
Net book value 2025 108 108
Net book value 2024 - -
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73

Financial statements

10. Tangible fixed assets

Group fixed assets

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----- Start of picture text -----
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Cost
Opening balance 23,493 3,405 2,747 791 1,303 31,739
- - - -
Transfer to intangible fixed assets (Note 9) (791) (791)
Additions 4 - 237 - 260 501
- - -
Disposals (1,371) (552) (1,923)
23,497 3,405 1,613 - 1,011 29,526
Depreciation
Opening balance 1,306 1,899 2,060 583 761 6,609
- - - -
Transfer to intangible fixed assets (Note 9) (583) (583)
Charge for the year 207 238 420 - 160 1,025
- - -
Disposals (1,345) (552) (1,897)
1,513 2,137 1,135 - 369 5,154
Net book value 2025 21,984 1,268 478 - 642 24,372
Net book value 2024 22,187 1,506 687 208 542 25,130
Leasehold property and improvements Plant and machinery Computer hardware Computer software Fixtures and fittings Group total
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Parent charity fixed assets

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----- Start of picture text -----
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Cost
Opening balance 2,116 490 1,081 3,687
- -
Transfer to intangible fixed assets (Note 9) (490) (490)
Additions 156 - 253 409
-
Disposals (1,092) (552) (1,644)
1,180 - 782 1,962
Depreciation
Opening balance 1,625 366 671 2,662
- -
Transfer to intangible fixed assets (Note 9) (366) (366)
Charge for the year 307 - 127 434
-
Disposals (1,090) (552) (1,642)
842 - 246 1,088
Net book value 2025 338 - 536 874
Net book value 2024 491 124 410 1,025
Computer hardware Computer software Fixtures and fittings Parent charity total
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74

Financial statements

11. Investments – Group

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----- Start of picture text -----
Category £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Equities and private equity
Global equities Quoted 123,773 - 50,002 (34,406) 2,110 141,479
UK small cap Quoted 33,732 - 291 (35,114) 1,091 -
Emerging markets Quoted 26,496 - - (27,139) 643 -
Infrastructure equity Unquoted 21,681 - 127 - 380 22,188
Private equity funds Unquoted 2,710 - - (1,320) (348) 1,042
Total equities and private equity 208,392 - 50,420 (97,979) 3,876 164,709
Fixed income and property
Multi-asset credit Unquoted 65,954 - - (3) 316 66,267
Asset-backed securities Unquoted 44,767 - 79,993 (44,999) (27) 79,734
Private debt (corporate) Unquoted 10,167 - 7,828 (3,716) 955 15,234
Private debt (infrastructure) Unquoted 17,525 - 1,398 (1,608) (33) 17,282
Property Property 35,177 - - (68) (801) 34,308
Bonds Quoted 23 - - - (23) -
Total fixed income and property 173,613 - 89,219 (50,394) 387 212,825
Mixed motive investments
Investment in early stage companies Unquoted 16,591 - 260 (21,184) 10,127 5,794
Investment in early stage funds Unquoted 578 - - - (12) 566
Total mixed motive investments 17,169 - 260 (21,184) 10,115 6,360
Other investments Unquoted 40 21,140 5,398 - (322) 26,256
Total investments 399,214 21,140 145,297 (169,557) 14,056 410,150
Market/fair value at 1 April 2024 Reclassification of investments previously held as programme-related (Note 12) Additions at cost Maturities, proceeds and disposals at market value Net gains and losses Group total market/ fair value at 31 March 2025
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Quoted investments are held at market value, unquoted investments and the investment property are at fair value.

As at 31 March 2025, total cash and investment assets held by The Nesta Trust totalled £418.3 million (2024: £426.4 million). Refer also to the Investment Review on pages 33 to 36 of this report for more detail of the investments.

The above table has been adjusted for consolidation in relation to the investment property; 51.3% of the property represents investment property to the Group. The remaining 48.7% is used by the Group and included within leasehold property and improvements in Note 10.

The valuation of the investment property (58 Victoria Embankment) is £42.9 million (2024: £44.8 million). The valuation is reviewed at each year end by an independent qualified property valuer, Gareth Hosgood (MRICS). Property above also includes a fund with a market value of £12.3 million (2024: £12.2 million).

*During the year, management conducted a reassessment of its investment classifications in line with the Charities SORP (FRS 102). Following this review, investments with a value of £21.1 million previously classified as Programme-Related Investments (PRIs) have been reclassified as Financial Investments, as they are no longer held primarily to further the charity’s objectives.

This reclassification, effective from 1 April 2024, reflects a refined assessment of the investment purpose and management approach, rather than a correction of a prior-year misstatement. The financial impact is limited to a presentation change, with no impact on valuation methodology.

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75

Financial statements

11. Investments – Group (continued)

Investment assets consist of the following

Equities and private equity Fixed income and property Mixed motive investments Other investments	Market/fair value at 31 March 2025 £’000 164,709 212,825 6,360 26,256	Market/fair value at 31 March 2024 £’000 208,392 173,613 17,169 40	Percentage of 2025 portfolio % 40% 52% 2% 6%	Percentage of 2024 portfolio % 52% 44% 4% 0%
	410,150	399,214	100%	100%

Total gains and losses on investment assets above impacting the consolidated statement of financial activities are summarised as follows:

Quoted investments Unquoted investments	Group total gain March 2025 £’000 3,821 10,235	Group total gain March 2024 £’000 20,024 36
	14,056	20,060

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76

Financial statements

12. Programme-related and mixed motive investments – Group and charity 12a Programme-related investments – Group and charity

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----- Start of picture text -----
Category £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Investment type
Equity 21,482 17 (55) (740) - - (19,791) 913
Unsecured loans 8,366 788 (576) (484) (6,162) 1,835 (1,349) 2,418
Total 29,848 805 (631) (1,224) (6,162) 1,835 (21,140) 3,331
Category £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Investment type
Equity 789 - (1) - 788
Unsecured loans 24,627 5,642 (336) (1,013) 28,920
Total 25,416 5,642 (337) (1,013) 29,708
Group total value 1 April 2024 Additions Disposals Revaluations Third party loans to entities no longer in the Group Inclusion of loans from Nesta to entities no longer in Group Reclassification of investments as held for financial return (Note 11) Group total value 31 March 2025
Parent charity total value 1 April 2024 Additions Disposals Revaluations Parent charity total value 31 March 2025
----- End of picture text -----**

*On 1 August 2024, Nesta Arts Impact LLP and Nesta Arts & Culture Impact LLP ceased to be part of the Nesta group and ownership transferred to Figurative. At this point, loans within these entities to third parties were treated as disposals in the accounts, a total of £6.2 million.

** When Nesta Arts Impact LLP and Nesta Arts & Culture Impact LLP left the Nesta group, the loans from Nesta owing to each totalling £1.8 million were then included as investments rather than being eliminated on consolidation. Investments in this case represent investment within the portfolio of each LLP rather than ownership.

***During the year, management conducted a reassessment of its investment classifications in line with the Charities SORP (FRS 102). Following this review, investments with a value of £21.1 million previously classified as Programme-Related Investments (PRIs) have been reclassified as Financial Investments, as they are no longer held primarily to further the charity’s objectives.

This reclassification, effective from 1 April 2024, reflects a refined assessment of the investment purpose and management approach, rather than a correction of a prior-year misstatement. The financial impact is limited to a presentation change, with no impact on valuation methodology.

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77

Financial statements

12. Programme-related and mixed motive investments – Group and charity (continued) 12b. Programme-related investments in joint venture – Group and charity

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----- Start of picture text -----
Group share Group share
Joint of net assets of net assets
Organisation Country of Class of venture Nature of 2025 2024
name registration ownership interest Year end date business £’000 £’000
FFN JV Limited UK Preference 45% 31-Dec Investing in
technology
start-ups
Share of net assets of joint 1,316 879
venture
Goodwill on acquisition of 1,956 1,873
joint venture
3,272 2,752
Group share of gain Group share of loss
in joint venture in joint venture
2025 2024
£’000 £’000
Share of gain / (loss) of FFN JV Limited 515 (341)
Amortisation of goodwill on acquisition of FFN JV Limited (495) (204)
Share of loss in joint venture 20 (545)
Parent charity
Parent charity total total value
value 1 April 2024 Additions Revaluations 31 March 2025
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Equity 879 500 - 1,379
Total 879 500 - 1,379
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The joint venture above relates to an investment in FFN JV Limited for a 50% controlling interest.

12c. Mixed motive investments

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----- Start of picture text -----
Parent charity
Parent charity total total value
value 1 April 2024 Additions Revaluations 31 March 2025
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Equity 17,478 - 802 18,280
Total 17,478 - 802 18,280
----- End of picture text -----

The mixed motive investment above relates to 100% subsidiary Behavioural Insights Limited ('BIT').

The valuation of BIT has seen an uplift of £0.8 million for the year to 31 March 2025 (impairment of £4.4 million for the year to 31 March 2024). The previous impairment was due to several factors, including staff turnover and challenges in the economic climate. In the year to 31 March 2025, BIT has strengthened its position by being awarded new contracts and is now in a much more robust position.

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Financial statements

13. Debtors

Amounts falling due within one year: Trade debtors Amounts due from subsidiary undertakings Accrued income Prepayments Other debtors Deferred tax asset Total debtors falling due within one year*	Group 2025 £’000 4,368 - 11,644 1,459 2,608 639 20,718	Parent charity 2025 £’000 1,118 1,439 9,313 1,636 33 - 13,539	Group 2024 £’000 4,414 - 10,950 4,392 631 907 21,294	Parent charity 2024 £’000 970 737 11,602 1,478 105 - 14,892
Amounts falling due after more than one year:
Accrued income	619	619	860	860
Other debtors	1,100	-	-	-
Total debtors falling due after more than	1,719	619	860	860
one year
Total debtors	22,437	14,158	22,154	15,752

*Deferred tax asset above arises in Behavioural Insights Limited, a trading subsidiary. The deferred tax asset was recognised in respect of unused tax losses that are available for offset against future taxable profits of the subsidiary in which the losses arose and short-term timing differences arising on remuneration and other trading activities.

Other debtors includes £2.4 million (2024: £nil) receivable in relation to the sale of an investment, of which £1.1 million is due after more than one year.

Annual report and accounts for the year ended 31 March 2025

79

Financial statements

14. Creditors

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Group Parent charity Group Parent charity
2025 2025 2024 2024
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Amounts falling due within one year:
Trade creditors 3,078 2,819 1,051 624
Amounts due to subsidiary undertakings - 27 - 2
Accruals 4,435 5,518 3,008 4,742
Deferred income 3,252 1,271 4,814 1,537
Grant creditors 2,325 2,785 2,234 2,696
Other tax and social security 1,909 591 1,672 1,129
Other creditors 734 462 873 622
Total creditors falling due within one year 15,733 13,473 13,652 11,352
Amounts falling due after more than one year:
Grant creditors 578 578 1,053 1,053
Other payables, including loans - - 9,050 -
Accruals 48 - 18 -
Provisions for liabilities 107 - 125 -
Total creditors falling due after more than 733 578 10,246 1,053
one year
Total creditors 16,466 14,051 23,898 12,405
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Group Parent charity Group Parent charity
2025 2025 2024 2024
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Analysis of deferred income
At 1 April 4,814 1,537 6,223 919
Prior year deferred income released during (4,814) (1,537) (6,223) (919)
the year
Income deferred in the year 3,252 1,271 4,814 1,537
At 31 March 3,252 1,271 4,814 1,537
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Deferred income relates to income received in advance for unrestricted projects, restricted projects and property income.

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Annual report and accounts for the year ended 31 March 2025

80

Financial statements

15. Subsidiaries

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Country of registration and
registered charity/company Class of
Organisation name number ownership Parent interest Nature of business
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Organisation name	Country of registration and registered charity/company number	Class of ownership	Parent interest	Nature of business
The Nesta Trust	United Kingdom charity number 1144683	Sole corporate Trustee		A charitable trust that holds investment assets
Nesta Enterprises Limited	United Kingdom company number 08580327	Ordinary	100%	A charitable trading company
Nesta GP Limited	United Kingdom company number 08231985	Ordinary	100%	General partner in the Nesta Impact Investments 1 Limited Partnership Fund
Nesta PRI Limited	United Kingdom company number 08232090	Ordinary	100%	Limited partner in the Nesta Impact Investments 1 Limited Partnership Fund
Nesta Partners Limited	United Kingdom company number 06618114	Ordinary	100%	Partner in Nesta Investment Management LLP and Nesta Arts Impact LLP
Nesta Challenges	United Kingdom company number 14045038	Control - company limited by guarantee	100%	Designs and creates challenge prizes to help solve the world’s biggest problems
Nesta Investment Management LLP	United Kingdom company number OC338038	Limited Liability Partnership	100%	Investment manager funds
Nesta US Inc	United States	Sole member	100%	To engage in charitable and educational activities within the meaning of Section 501 (c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code 1986
Behavioural Insights Limited	United Kingdon company number 08567792	Ordinary	100%	A social purpose consultancy company

Subsidiaries of Behavioural Insights Limited:

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Type of Proportion
Subsidiaries Country of incorporation shares held held (%) Nature of business
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Subsidiaries	Country of incorporation	Type of shares held	Proportion held (%)	Nature of business
Behavioural Insights Trustee Company Ltd	United Kingdom	Ordinary	100	Employee benefits
Behavioural Insights (US) Inc.	United States	Ordinary	100	Consultancy
Behavioural Insights (Singapore) Pte Ltd	Singapore	Ordinary	100	Consultancy
Behavioural Insights (Australia) Pty Ltd	Australia	Ordinary	100	Consultancy
Behavioural Insights (Canada) Ltd	Canada	Ordinary	100	Consultancy
Behavioural Insights (France) SAS	France	Ordinary	100	Consultancy
Behavioural Insights (LAC) SAS	Colombia	Ordinary	99	Consultancy
System 2 Ltd	Australia	Sole member		Charity

All of the above entities have a year end date of 31 March.

Annual report and accounts for the year ended 31 March 2025

81

Financial statements

15. Subsidiaries (continued)

The following entities ceased to be members of the Group from 31 July 2024:

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Type of Proportion
Subsidiaries Country of incorporation shares held held (%) Nature of business
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Nesta Arts Impact LLP (from 15 August 2024, known as "Figurative Arts Impact LLP")	United Kingdom company number OC396102	Limited Liability Partnership	100%	Financial support for arts organisations
Nesta Arts & Culture Impact LLP (from 19 August 2024, known as "Figurative Arts & Culture Impact LLP")	United Kingdom company number OC423779	Limited Liability Partnership	100%	Financial support for arts organisations
Arts & Culture Finance	United Kingdom company number 14818670	Ordinary	100%	Financial support for arts organisations
Arts & Culture Finance Partners Limited	United Kingdom company number 14985355	Ordinary	100%	(Dormant) Financial support for arts and culture organisations

The following group companies were dissolved post year end:

Subsidiaries	Country of incorporation	Type of shares held	Proportion held (%)	Nature of business
Cultural Impact Development Loans Limited (dissolved 27 May 2025)	United Kingdom company number 11388464	Ordinary	100%	Financial support for arts organisations
NII GP2 Limited (dissolved 1 July 2025)	United Kingdom company number 10710378	Ordinary	100%	(Dormant) General partner
NII2 Special Partner LLP (dissolved 5 August 2025)	United Kingdom company number OC416761	Limited Liability Partnership	100%	(Dormant) Special partner

Annual report and accounts for the year ended 31 March 2025

82

Financial statements

The results of the subsidiary entities consolidated are as follows:

Profit and Loss for the year ended 31 March 2025 Income Expenditure Other gains/ (losses) Partner share/ (loss)/ profit for the year Assets Liabilities Net assets/ (liabilities) Opening net reserves/ (liabilities)	The Nesta Trust	Nesta Enterprises Limited	Nesta GP Ltd	Nesta PRI Ltd	Cultural Impact Development Loans Limited	Nesta Partners Limited	Behavioural Insights Limited and subsidiaries	Nesta Challenges	Nesta Investment Management LLP	Nesta US Inc	2025 total	2024 total
	£’000 17,344 (35,756) 13,463 (4,949) 424,427 (1,090) 423,337 428,286	£’000 88 (77) - 11 114 (114) - (11)	£’000 45 (45) - - 8 (8) - -	£’000 - - (740) (740) 134 (4,168) (4,034) (3,294)	£’000 223 - - 223 - - - (223)	£’000 79 (79) (282) (282) 26,326 (23,881) 2,445 2,727	£’000 25,803 (25,091) - 712 13,311 (6,625) 6,686 5,974	£’000 535 (535) - - 245 (245) - -	£’000 157 (84) (130) (57) 173 (53) 120 177	£’000 - - - - - - - -	£’000 44,274 (61,667) 12,311 (5,082) 464,738 (36,184) 428,554 433,636	£’000 41,517 (56,274) 13,629 (1,128) 472,383 (41,221) 431,162 432,290
Closing net reserves/ (liabilities)	423,337	-	-	(4,034)	-	2,445	6,686	-	120	-	428,554	431,162

Entities with negative balances have continued support which is approved by the relevant Board committee. No intercompany amounts were written off in the year, and none are repayable within fifteen months of 31 March 2025.

Annual report and accounts for the year ended 31 March 2025

83

Financial statements

16. Funds

16a. Unrestricted and endowment funds

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Funds retained
within non
charitable joint
General funds ventures Endowment funds Total
Group £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Balance at 1 April 2024 52,868 (1,503) 411,935 463,300
Net income/ (expenditure) before (25,225) - 14,120 (11,105)
investment gains
Unrealised (losses)/ gains on investments (322) - 14,378 14,056
Share of operating loss in joint venture - 20 - 20
FFN JV Limited
Transfers to restricted funds (1,107) - - (1,107)
Transfers from endowment to general 11,335 - (11,335) -
funds
Foreign exchange gains (65) - 10 (55)
Balance at 31 March 2025 37,484 (1,483) 429,108 465,109
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• Where Nesta provides match-funding or programme support on projects, total expenditure is shown in the restricted fund and a transfer from the general fund to the restricted fund is made to account for Nesta’s share of expenditure.

** The expendable endowment fund relates to the funds of the Trust. These funds are held without distinction as to capital and income and can be applied in furtherance of the objects of the Trust. The Trust makes an annual transfer to Nesta to deliver its charitable aims as detailed in the reserves policy. The difference between endowment funds and The Nesta Trust reverses as at 31 March 2025 is the cumulative unrealised gain adjustments in the Group accounts relating to 58 Victoria Embankment (see Note 11).

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General funds Total
Parent charity £’000 £’000
Balance at 1 April 2024 39,370 39,370
Net income/ (expenditure) before 5,327 5,327
investment gains
Unrealised (losses)/ gains on investments 802 802
Transfers to restricted funds ( as above) (1,107) (1,107)
Balance at 31 March 2025 44,392 44,392
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Annual report and accounts for the year ended 31 March 2025

84

Financial statements

16. Funds (continued) – 16b. Restricted funds

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Balance Transfer from/ Balance
1 April 2024 Income Expenditure (to) general fund 31 March 2025
Funder Programme £'000 £'000) £’000 £’000 £'000
Alan Davidson Foundation Longitude Prize on ALS - 1,500 (279) 279 1,500
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Sloan Research Network - 680 (56) (67) 557
Alzheimer's Society Longitude Prize on 2,500 - (1,922) 432 1,010
Dementia
Argidius Foundation iNNpulsa Evidence Generation - 203 (5) (58) 140
and Use Accelerator
DBT (Department for Business Innovation Growth Lab 67 - (27) - 40
and Trade)
DBT (Department for Business Smart Data – Phase 1 (Discov- 780 - (263) 263 780
and Trade) ery)
DSIT (Department for Science, Manchester Prize 1,900 - (2,034) 428 294
Innovation and Technology)
Elrha Community Crisis - 408 (344) (64) -
Intelligence (CCI) 3.0
Ethos Foundation A New Era of Integrated Family - 80 (62) (18) -
Support
European Climate ECF: Energy Sector and NZ 270 - (262) - 8
Foundation Acceptability
European Commission EURITO 73 - (54) (19) -
European Commission HACID – human and artificial 259 - (150) (50) 59
collective intelligence for
decision making
European Commission Impetus 153 - (66) (13) 74
Food Standards Scotland OOH Calorie Sampling Project - 50 (50) - -
Foreign, Commonwealth & woProject - 147 - - 147
Development Office
Future of Life Institute Future of Life AI SRAL - 363 (21) (64) 278
Gates Foundation Behavioural Interventions for - 925 (439) - 486
Aspirational Blocks
Government of Canada Afri-Plastics Challenge 500 (51) (50) 50 449
GSCC Phase 3 – Developing a Website - 28 (79) 51 -
to Encourage Heat Pump
Adoption
Innovate UK (UKRI) Innovation Growth Lab 54 39 (66) - 27
Innovate UK (UKRI) Legacy Evaluations (UKRI) - 162 (66) (11) 85
Innovate UK (UKRI) Longitude 5,000 - (5,000) - -
Innovate UK (UKRI) Unlocking Innovative Potential: - 214 (95) 1 120
Experimentation Fund
LifeArc Newborn Survival Prize – LifeArc - 202 (63) (17) 122
Nuffield Foundation Revealing Social Capital 13 - (50) 63 26
Open Philanthropy Action Fund Innovation Growth Lab - 1,059 - - 1,059
UCL (University College London) CAPE – Capabilities in Academic 60 (60) - - -
Policy Engagement
UK Research and Innovation UKRI Open Access Block Grant 36 (35) (333) 332 -
(UKRI)
UK Space Agency UKSA – Aqua Lunar Water 1,326 - (1,248) (78) -
Challenge
University of Oxford Salient food trials (Delivery 558 - (323) - 235
Phase)
USAID Mombasa Plastics Prize Phase II 142 - (102) (40) -
Van Leer Foundation Good Start Challenge - 1,208 (148) (192) 868
Welsh European Funding Office Y Lab – WEFO Skills and Capac- 505 (450) (12) (43) -
(WEFO) ity Building
All < £50k 360 14 (228) (58) 88
14,556 6,686 (13,897) 1,107 8,452
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Negative income and positive expenditure above relates to variations of grant income that was previously recorded which reduced the original grant value, and reversal of balances that have not been drawn down.

In many cases, restricted income is received for programmes for which there is part or match-funding by Nesta (either in cash or in kind). The expenditure shown as restricted is the total expenditure of the programme funded by both Nesta and the external donor. A transfer from the general fund represents the portion of the programme funded by Nesta. A transfer to the general fund represents the portion of funding that Nesta is able to retain to cover overheads.

Annual report and accounts for the year ended 31 March 2025

85

Financial statements

17. Analysis of net assets between funds

Group

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Expendable
Unrestricted funds Restricted funds endowment Group total funds
2025 2025 2025 2025
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Fund balances are represented by:
Intangible assets 5,479 - - 5,479
Tangible fixed assets 1,120 - 23,252 24,372
Investment assets 6,603 - 410,150 416,753
Current and long-term assets 34,971 8,452 - 43,423
-
Current and long-term liabilities (12,172) (4,294) (16,466)
Total 36,001 8,452 429,108 473,561
Expendable
Unrestricted funds Restricted funds endowment Group total funds
2024 2024 2024 2024
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Fund balances are represented by:
Intangible assets 6,205 - - 6,205
Tangible fixed assets 1,437 - 23,693 25,130
Investment assets 32,600 - 399,214 431,814
Current and long-term assets 24,049 14,556 - 38,605
-
Current and long-term liabilities (12,926) (10,972) (23,898)
Total 51,365 14,556 411,935 477,856
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Parent charity

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Expendable Parent charity
Unrestricted funds Restricted funds endowment total funds
2025 2025 2025 2025
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Fund balances are represented by:
Intangible assets 108 - - 108
Tangible fixed assets 874 - - 874
Investment assets 49,367 - - 49,367
Current and long-term assets 8,094 8,452 - 16,546
- -
Current and long-term liabilities (14,051) (14,051)
Total 44,392 8,452 - 52,844
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Expendable Parent charity
Unrestricted funds Restricted funds endowment total funds
2024 2024 2024 2024
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Fund balances are represented by:
- - - -
Intangible assets
Tangible fixed assets 1,025 - - 1,025
Investment assets 43,773 - - 43,773
Current and long-term assets 6,977 14,556 - 21,533
- -
Current and long-term liabilities (12,405) (12,405)
Total 39,370 14,556 - 53,926
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Annual report and accounts for the year ended 31 March 2025

86

Financial statements

18. Summary consolidated income and expenditure account

The summary income and expenditure account is presented in order to ensure compliance with the Companies Act 2006.

The major difference in the figures presented from those in the consolidated statement of financial activities is that unrealised gains and losses on investment assets are not recognised.

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Group 2025 Group 2024
£’000 £’000
Gross income:
Income 15,508 16,221
Income of non-charitable subsidiaries 24,960 22,343
40,468 38,564
Gross expenditure:
Expenditure 71,028 62,626
Depreciation of fixed assets 1,025 1,131
Amortisation of intangible assets 1,173 1,090
73,226 64,847
Transfers between funds 11,335 29,639
Share of profit/(loss) in joint ventures 20 (545)
Foreign exchange gains (65) (65)
Net movement in funds for the year, excluding endowment funds (21,468) 2,746
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Reconciliation to consolidated statement of financial activities
Net movement in funds for the year, excluding endowment funds (21,468) 2,746
Movement on endowment funds 17,173 3,387
Net movement in funds for the year (4,295) 6,133
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Annual report and accounts for the year ended 31 March 2025

87

Financial statements

19. Commitments

Investments, loans or contributions to funds that have been contracted but not yet drawn down, and grant agreements not yet signed by Nesta by the balance sheet date, are shown as commitments below.

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Group total Group total
at 1 April at 31 March
2024 Additions De-committed Contracted 2025
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000 Funded from
Investments, loans, contributions
to funds:
Investment funds 28,666 - - (4,098) 24,568 Endowment
fund
Programme-related investments 5,132 - - (462) 4,670 General fund
Total 33,798 - - (4,560) 29,238
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Commitments made to investment funds are expected to be largely drawn by June 2027.

Commitments made to Nesta for mission aligned investment and exceptional (i.e. not in the ordinary course of business) spending initiatives are expected to be largely drawn by March 2028.

Commitments will be primarily funded by the liquidation of equity investments.

20. Operating lease commitments

At 31 March 2025 the Group was committed to total payments during the next year in respect of operating leases which are due within the following periods.

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Group 2025 Group 2024
£’000 £’000
Due within one year 243 321
Due within two to five years 155 1,410
- -
Due in more than five years
Total 398 1,731
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At 31 March 2025 the Nesta parent charity had entered into agreements with three organisations, with one under license and two to lease part of 58 Victoria Embankment. One organisation occupying two floors has within the year negotiated early release from the lease to one floor, resulting in a reduction in future rental income receipts from that anticipated previously.

The rental payments due to the parent charity are:

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----- Start of picture text -----
Parent Parent
charity charity
2025 2024
£’000 £’000
Buildings – 58 Victoria
Embankment
Due within one year 1,230 1,517
Due within two to five years 2,754 4,449
Due in more than five years 730 1,163
Total 4,714 7,129
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Annual report and accounts for the year ended 31 March 2025

88

Financial statements

21. Related party transactions

The Nesta Trust ('the Trust') was established by a Trust Deed dated 22 September 2011. The Trust holds investment assets previously held by the NESTA which was abolished on 1 April 2012. The assets of the Trust provide income and capital to be applied by Nesta as sole Trustee to further the objects of the Trust. As the sole Trustee of the Trust, Nesta is considered to control the Trust which operationally means Nesta is responsible for the Trust’s investment policy.

The Trust is a registered charitable trust which is classified by the Office of National Statistics as within the public sector boundary. Nesta has had transactions with government departments and bodies during the year as part of its ordinary course of business. As the Trust is not involved in the operational decisions of Nesta, any transactions between government departments/bodies and Nesta are not considered to be related party transactions.

The related party transactions that require disclosure between Nesta and its related companies are as follows:

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Opening Receivable/ Cash paid by/ Closing net
net debtor/ (payable) by (received by) (creditor)/
(creditor) charity charity debtor
Entity Connection £'000 £'000) £’000 £’000 Notes – main transactions in the year
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Entity	Connection	Opening net debtor/ (creditor) £'000	Receivable/ (payable) by charity £'000)	Cash paid by/ (received by) charity £’000	Closing net (creditor)/ debtor £’000	Notes – main transactions in the year
The Nesta Trust	Subsidiary undertaking	-	(3,305,445)	3,303,564	(1,881)	Nesta drew down £22.4 million (2024: £21.3 million) from the Trust to fund operational activities. Nesta drew down £9.8 million (2024: £8.1 million) from the Trust to fund investment and exceptional spending initiatives. Nesta drew down £3.0 million (2024: £nil) from the Trust to part fund the Longitude Prize on Antimicrobial Resistance. Nesta drew down £0.2 million (2024: £0.25 million) from the Trust to fund other activities. Nesta paid the Trust £0.4m (2024: £0.2 million) in relation to realisations of investments the Trust historically funded. Nesta was invoiced £2,891,000 (2024: £2,891,000) for rent. The amount recognised in the statement of financial activities differs due to the accounting adjustment for the rent-free period, with rental income of £2,505,535 (2024: £2,505,535) recognised in the year. The Trust contributed £169,251 (2024: £112,692) to Nesta towards Nesta staff time spent on the administration of the Trust.
Nesta Enterprises Limited	Subsidiary undertaking	53,491	105,265	(65,081)	93,675	Nesta Enterprises Limited was recharged £55,631 (2024: £45,075) by Nesta for funds spent on their behalf, and gift aided its profits of £53,454 (2024: £nil) to Nesta.
Cultural Impact Development Loans Limited	Subsidiary undertaking	5,394	(36,280)	30,886	-	Nesta charged Cultural Impact Development Loans Limited management fees totalling £6,706 (2024: £9,603).
Nesta I nvestment Management LLP	Subsidiary undertaking	126,608	49,407	(46,945)	129,070	Nesta received distributions from Nesta Investment Management LLP of £56,940 (2024: £111,145) for prior year profit and an interim distributions of £75,000 (2024: £400,000) against this year's profit.
Nesta Partners Limited	Subsidiary undertaking	10,088	(133,009)	8,645	(114,276)	Nesta Partners Limited gift aided its profits to Nesta of £35,204 (2024: £42,250).
Behavioural Insights Limited	Subsidiary undertaking	309,318	773,985	(501,403)	581,900	Behavioural Insights Limited received income from Nesta for staff second- ments of £145,604 (2024: £475,907), and other fees totalling £487,169 (2024: £411,349), and paid Nesta £1,166,941 (2024: £613,999) for recharges and consultancy services. Behavioural Insights Limited is part of the Nesta VAT group and at 31 March 2025 owed Nesta £3514,331 (2024: £407,055) relating to this. Behavioural Insights Limited paid rent and service charge to Nesta of £556,751 (2024: £466,551).
Nesta Challenges	Subsidiary undertaking	43,481	416,037	(228,223)	231,295	Nesta Challenges gift aided its profits to Nesta of £320,480 (2024: £600,144).
Nesta Arts Impact LLP	Subsidiary undertaking until 31 July 2024	6,873	5,360	(12,233)	-	Nesta charged Nesta Arts Impact LLP loan interest totalling £15,707 (2024: £18,049). Nesta charged Nesta Arts Impact LLP management fees totalling £6,960 (2024: £28,144).
Nesta Arts & Culture Impact LLP	Subsidiary undertaking until 31 July 2024	(2,462)	112,967	(133,663)	(23,158)	Nesta charged Nesta Arts & Culture Impact LLP loan interest totalling £37,252 (2024: £10,496).

Nesta's trustees are drawn from among its key stakeholders, and staff may at times have links to stakeholder organisations and therefore it is in the nature of Nesta's business to have some transactions which are classified as related. All transactions are entered into the ordinary course of business, consistent with Nesta's policy on potential conflicts of interest.

Annual report and accounts for the year ended 31 March 2025

89

Financial statements

22. Comparative consolidated statement of financial activities

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Unrestricted Restricted Expendable Total
funds funds endowment funds
2024 2024 2024 2024
Restated Restated Restated Restated
£’000 £’000 £’000 £’000
Income from:
Investment income 366 - 13,848 14,214
Charitable activities 3,649 9,629 - 13,278
Other trading activities 24,761 - - 24,761
Other income 159 - - 159
Total income 28,935 9,629 13,848 52,412
Total Group income 28,935 9,629 13,848 52,412
Expenditure on:
Raising funds
Trading activities 23,193 - - 23,193
Investment management costs 56 - 412 468
Total expenditure on raising funds 23,249 - 412 23,661
Charitable activities
A fairer start 3,003 - 34 3,037
A healthy life 2,826 473 37 3,336
A sustainable future 2,750 - 31 2,781
Central programmes and devolved nations 3,385 - 38 3,423
Committed programme delivery 4,292 793 57 5,142
Enterprises 5,651 6,973 141 12,765
Investments in furtherance of the charity's 6,161 - 69 6,230
objectives
Practices 4,610 683 59 5,352
Total expenditure on charitable activities 32,678 8,922 466 42,066
Total expenditure 55,927 8,922 878 65,727
Net (expenditure)/income before (26,992) 707 12,970 (13,315)
investment gains
Net gains/ (losses) on Investments for - - 20,058 20,058
financial return
Net (expenditure)/income (26,992) 707 33,028 6,743
- -
Share of (losses) in joint venture (545) (545)
Transfers between funds 28,283 1,356 (29,639) -
Net income/(expenditure) before other 746 2,063 3,389 6,198
recognised (losses)/ gains
Other recognised (losses)/ gains
-
Foreign exchange (losses)/ gains (63) (2) (65)
Net movement in funds for the year 683 2,063 3,387 6,133
Reconciliation of funds
Total funds brought forward 50,682 12,493 408,548 471,723
Total funds carried forward 51,365 14,556 411,935 477,856
----- End of picture text -----

Last year's categories have been restated here so they can be easily compared with the updated categories for the year end 31 March 2025. Total income and expenditure for 2024 has not changed.

Annual report and accounts for the year ended 31 March 2025

90

Financial statements

23. Comparative funds

23a. Comparative unrestricted funds

Balance at 1 April 2023 Net income/ (expenditure) before investment gains Unrealised gains on investments Share of operating loss in joint venture FFN JV Limited Transfers to restricted funds Transfers from endowment to general funds* Foreign exchange gains	General funds 2024 £’000 51,640 (26,992) - - (1,356) 29,639 (63)	Funds retained within non charitable joint ventures 2024 £’000 (958) - - (545) - - -	Endowment funds 2024 £’000 408,548 12,970 20,058 - - (29,639) -	Total 2024 £’000 459,230 (14,022) 20,058 (545) (1,356) - (65)
Balance at 31 March 2024	52,868	(1,503)	411,935	463,300

*Where Nesta provides match-funding or programme support on projects, total expenditure is shown in the restricted fund and a transfer from the general fund to the restricted fund is made to account for Nesta’s share of expenditure.

**The expendable endowment fund relates to the funds of the Trust. These funds are held without distinction as to capital and income and can be applied in furtherance of the objects of the Trust. The Trust makes an annual transfer to Nesta to deliver its charitable aims as detailed in the reserves policy.

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Financial statements

23. Comparative funds (continued)

23b. Comparative restricted funds

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----- Start of picture text -----
Balance Transfer from/ Balance
1 April 2023 Income Expenditure (to) general fund 31 March 2024
Funder Programme £'000 £'000) £’000 £’000 £'000
Alzheimer's Society Longitude Prize on Dementia 4,340 351 (2,584) 393 2,500
Arts and Humanities Research Policy and Evidence Centre – 194 163 (352) (6) (1)
Council (AHRC) Core
CERN – European Organisation Attract Next 81 - (51) (3) 27
for Nuclear Research
Department for Business & Trade Smart Data – Full Prize - 800 (312) 292 780
Department for Science, Manchester Prize - 1,900 (128) 128 1,900
Innovation and Technology
Dream Oval Foundation DreamOval Foundation – GSTEP - 141 (98) - 43
Economic and Social Research ESRC Net Zero Productivity 122 - (56) (21) 45
Council (ESRC)
Elrha UKHIH 2.0 Scaling up - 66 (48) (8) 10
European Climate Foundation ECF: Energy Sector and NZ - 300 (30) - 270
Acceptability
European Commission TalTech Twinning 66 (30) (28) (7) 1
European Commission Impetus 239 - (69) (17) 153
European Commission HACID 357 - (78) (20) 259
European Commission Pro-Ethics 79 - (45) (3) 31
European Commission EURITO 73 - - - 73
Government of Canada Afri-Plastics Challenge 594 - (77) (17) 500
Gulbenkian (UK Branch) Gulbenkian TSR roll out - 60 (7) (31) 22
Innovate UK Innovation Growth Lab 341 147 (600) 374 262
Innovate UK Longitude 5,000 - (238) 238 5,000
Nuffield Foundation Revealing Social Capital - 488 (475) - 13
Prism the Gift Fund The Ending Youth Violence Lab - 2,281 (2,283) 2 -
UK Research and Innovation UKRI Open Access Block Grant 4 32 (325) 325 36
(UKRI)
UK Space Agency UKSA – Aqua Lunar Water - 1,542 (155) (61) 1,326
Challenge
University College London CAPE – Capabilities in Academic 76 - (16) - 60
Policy Engagement
University of Helsinki Nordforsk COLDIGIT 53 - (52) (1) -
University of Oxford Salient Food Trials – Co-design - 50 (39) (11) -
phase
University of Oxford Salient food trials – delivery - 838 (270) (10) 558
phase
USAID Mombasa Plastics Prize 117 (3) (134) 20 -
USAID Mombasa Plastics Prize Phase II - 423 (201) (80) 142
Welsh European Funding Office Y Lab – WEFO Skills and Capac- 572 - (67) - 505
ity Building
All values < £50k 185 80 (104) (120) 41
12,493 9,629 (8,922) 1,356 14,556
----- End of picture text -----

Negative income and positive expenditure above relates to variations of grant income that was previously recorded which reduced the original grant value, and reversal of balances that have not been drawn down.

In many cases, restricted income is received for programmes for which there is part or match-funding by Nesta (either in cash or in kind). The expenditure shown as restricted is the total expenditure of the programme funded by both Nesta and the external donor. A transfer from the general fund represents the portion of the programme funded by Nesta. A transfer to the general fund represents the portion of funding that Nesta is able to retain to cover overheads.

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Reference and administrative details

8. Reference and administrative details

Trustees and Main Board Committee Members

Trustees

Ed Richards (Chair)

Sarah Hunter

Jeremy King Catherine Brien

Richard Lloyd-Owen (appointed 20 May 2024)

Richard Harrington

Seun Akindele (resigned 25 November 2025)

Ian Gomes (resigned 30 April 2024)

Helena Vinnicombe (appointed 9 September 2024)

Jane Thompson (appointed 1 October 2024)

Judith Gibbons

(resigned 8 May 2025)

Heider Ridha (resigned 24 May 2024)

Liz Ditchburn (resigned on 30 September 2025)

Audit and Risk Committee

Richard Lloyd-Owen (Chair)

Liz Ditchburn

Helena Vinnicombe

James Sinclair-Taylor (Governance Advisor)

Trust Investment Committee

Helena Vinnicombe (Chair)

Richard Lloyd-Owen

Sarah Hunter

James Sinclair-Taylor (Governance Advisor)

Aidan Kearney (Independent advisor)

David Renton (Independent advisor)

People Committee

Judith Gibbons (Chair)

Catherine Brien

Seun Akindele

Quarterly Investment Committee

Jeremy King (Chair)

Richard Harrington

Jane Thompson

Damien Lane (Committee member)

Chris Allner (Committee member)

Challenge Prizes

Catherine Brien (Chair)

Seun Akindele

Andrew Clarke (Committee member)

Missions (non-Board)

Ravi Gurumurthy (Chair)

Ed Richards

Jeremy King

Jane Thompson

Sarah Hunter

Catherine Brien (optional)

Seun Akindele (optional)

Governance advisor of The Nesta Trust

James Sinclair Taylor

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Reference and administrative details

Executive Team

Ravi Gurumurthy	Group Chief Executive
Emily Bushby(until 6 August 2025)	Deputy Chief Executive
Matthew Seden(from 1 September 2025)	Deputy Chief Executive
Matthew Seden(until 31 August 2025)	Chief Strategy Officer
Lisa Barclay(until 31 March 2025)	Executive Director of Investments
Elspeth Kirkman	Chief Programme Officer
Jacqueline Lewis	Group General Counsel & Company Secretary
Ann Paul	Group Chief People Officer
Ella White	Group Executive Director of Communications
James Plunkett(until 31 December 2024)	Chief Practices Officer
Mallory Durran(from 25 June 2025)	Applied Research & Innovation Director

Administrative details of the charity

Registered name	Nesta (changed from ‘Nesta Operating Company’
	on 22 July 2013)
Companies House registered number	07706036 (registered 15 July 2011)
Charity Commission registered number	1144091 (registered 30 September 2011)
Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator
registered number	SC042833 (registered 30 December 2011)
Registered Office	58 Victoria Embankment, London EC4Y 0DS
Independent Auditor	RSM UK Audit LLP, 25 Farringdon Street. London, EC4A 4AB
	United Kingdom
Principal Bankers	Lloyds Bank plc, 25 Gresham Street, London, EC2V 7HN
Nesta Trust Investment Advisors	Momentum Global Investment Management, 3rd Floor,
	3 More London Riverside, London, SE1 2AQ

Annual report and accounts for the year ended 31 March 2025

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58 Victoria Embankment London EC4Y 0DS [phone] [e-mail] nesta.uk www.nesta.org.uk ~~| -~~ Nesta is a registered charity in England and Wales with company number 07706036 and charity number 1144091. Registered as a charity in Scotland number SCO42833. Registered office: 58 Victoria Embankment, London EC4Y 0DS.