Evaluation report May 2020
Supported by
Tech To Connect Challenge: Evaluation report
Supported by
Evaluation report
Introduction 3 Key highlights from the finalists
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Structure of the report
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1 About the prize
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Prize design
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Prize statement and goals
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Prize timeline
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Outreach
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Prize entries
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Judging criteria and process
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The judging panel
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Key events and activities
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The finalists
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Acknowledgements
Partners
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Report written and prepared by Nesta Challenges: Janet Southern, Programme Manager Caroline Pradier, Assistant Programme Manager Gary Fawdrey, Assistant Programme Manager Sally Nelson, Programme Coordinator Bhavik Doshi, Research and Impact Officer
2 Report focus
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3 Prize findings
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If you’d like this publication in an alternative format such as Braille or large print, please contact us at: information@nesta.org.uk Design: Green Doe Graphic Design Ltd
Breakthrough innovation
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Helping innovators thrive
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Systemic change
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4 Learnings, recommendations and conclusion
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Tech To Connect Challenge: Evaluation report
Introduction The Tech to Connect Challenge was a one year programme delivered by Nesta Challenges and funded by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS). It was inspired by the 2018 strategy for tackling loneliness in England called ‘A connected society’, which sets out the Government’s vision and its ongoing commitment to this issue, alongside some important initial policy commitments. It also details the Civil Society Strategy which highlighted the importance of technological innovation to tackle some of the world’s most complex social challenges. It recognised that the Government can’t make the necessary changes alone, and set out a powerful vision on how we can all play a role in building a more socially connected society. The aim of the prize was to help innovators from civil society generate tech solutions that enable more or better interactions between people, to support the iteration and development of these early stage ideas, and to enable civil society to combat social isolation using technology. Ten finalists each received cash grants of £25,000 to use in the development of their prototype solutions. From these finalists, two runners-up each received a £75,000 cash prize and one winner received a £100,000 cash prize.
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Tech To Connect Challenge: Evaluation report
Key highlights from the finalists This evaluation finds that the Tech to Connect Challenge was positively received by all key stakeholders (finalists, partners, judges), and was able to achieve its objectives, as well as meet overall satisfaction with the challenge prize experience. Below are some of the key impacts of the prize: • All finalists were satisfied by the experience of participating in the Tech to Connect Challenge, with 90 per cent stating the prize was either good or very good.
Structure of the report 1
Section 1 provides an overview of the prize, including the prize statement, criteria and timeline, as well as the entries and partners.
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Section 2 highlights what the report is focused on and what was undertaken as part of this prize impact assessment.
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Section 3 provides more detail on the prize findings, by explaining the impact achieved through the three analytical categories of: creating breakthrough innovation, helping innovators thrive and systemic change, whilst aggregating the finalists’ solutions and their development.
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Section 4 provides learnings from the prize and recommendations on which actions can be taken to improve both the development impact and the prize process.
• The prize attracted 130 entries from 30 counties across England, with over 65 per cent coming from outside London. • All finalists engaged over 41,000 users in testing and utilising their solutions to reduce social isolation. • All finalists were very likely to continue working on their solution, regardless of winning the prize money. • All finalists noted that the challenge prize offered them credibility as a team. • On average, over 50 per cent of finalists felt that they had developed or improved their skills and knowledge in impact measurement, user and human-centred design, communications and marketing and business planning,. • The prize spurred the Pargiter Trust to provide additional funding for an extra prize award of £25,000. • The prize allowed for all finalist solutions to develop much quicker than they would have otherwise.
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Tech To Connect Challenge: Evaluation report
1
About the prize Loneliness and social isolation are interconnected. Both are often experienced, but rarely talked about.
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Tech To Connect Challenge: Evaluation report
We see social isolation as ‘being deprived of social relationships that provide positive feedback and are meaningful to the individual’. Social isolation is measured by the strength of a person’s social connections, and therefore the lack of these connections denotes social isolation. Social isolation is distinct from loneliness, which is a related issue that affects many in our society. In 2016 to 2017, 5 per cent of UK adults reported feeling lonely ‘often’ or ‘always’. Loneliness is a ‘subjective, unwelcome feeling of lack or loss of companionship’. In the age of social media, there has never been more technology that connects us with one another. Yet, it is clear that there is space for technology to do even more to tackle social isolation specifically. That is why the Tech to Connect Challenge looked to civil society – England’s charities and social enterprises – for new ‘tech for good’ ideas. The Tech to Connect Challenge was created to give these organisations the resources needed to bring their innovative ideas to life. Challenge prizes offer a reward to whoever can first or most effectively solve a problem. The immediate objective of the challenge was to draw out and develop ideas for technology that can help civil society combat social isolation throughout England. This could be by developing new ways for people, or the organisation itself, to interact with others. By lending the right assistance to organisations that know the problem of isolation best, the hope was that technology could be targeted properly and delivered in a way that best reflects the needs of its users; to build on the technology that has been developed to connect people and find ways that it can really make a difference in the lives of those that are removed from society. In cultivating a variety of ideas for new technology to tackle social isolation, the challenge wanted to also contribute to the evidence base
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of which technology-based interventions work and how. The challenge also wanted to further the knowledge base of what works and why (or why not), by collecting learnings from previous attempts and supporting finalists to develop their ideas for the better. It looked to be a vehicle for demonstrating the benefits of using technology throughout civil society, both internally and externally, and also to raise awareness to stimulate further open conversations about loneliness in years to come. In this way, the Tech To Connect Challenge aimed to inform the ongoing debate about the role of technology in helping society’s most isolated; contributing positively to the debate about the potential for technology to aid the socially isolated, and proving that impactful technologies can be delivered through effective partnerships and by an innovative civil society.
Prize design Nesta Challenges designed the Tech to Connect Challenge to help civil society organisations turn their tech ideas into working prototypes. The challenge looked for the most innovative ideas, helping them turn these ideas into prototypes that have the potential for real change, either in the way civil society interacts with people, or how people interact with each other. By helping civil society organisations develop their ideas for new technologies and emphasising the importance of considered design, the challenge aimed to add potentially impactful technologies to the development pipeline of tech to help England’s socially isolated. Ten finalists each received cash grants of £25,000 to use in the development of their prototype solutions; from these finalists, two runners-up each received a £75,000 cash prize and one winner received a £100,000 cash prize.
Tech To Connect Challenge: Evaluation report
Prize statement and goals Challenge Statement: The Tech to Connect Challenge was looking to help civil society develop their early stage ideas for technology that enables more or better interactions between people. Technology can be alienating or divisive for those that are isolated, so through the challenge, we wanted to help civil society translate their knowledge into good ideas for new ways to connect people.
What we were looking for: We were interested in any and all solutions that could reasonably be expected to have a measurable impact on social isolation in England. These could have been digital technologies that augment the way people interact with organisations, or ideas that could enhance the way isolated people interact with each other. We were also looking for innovative back-end solutions that could help to improve the service delivery of an organisation, clearly supporting the reduction of isolation in communities in England.
Challenge timeline Finalist Showcase Event
Launch
Week
Applications open
Assesment stage
Stage 1 User research and prototype design
1-7
7-13
14-21
22-34
35-38
Stage 2 Prototype development and user testing
Assesment stage
Discovery Workshop
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Tech To Connect Challenge: Evaluation report
Outreach Outreach is an important part of a challenge prize, as it is through this process we are able to attract potential innovators to apply. This is a crucial part of the challenge as we try to attract as many diverse innovators as possible, to approach the problem of social isolation in a variety of different ways.
Media activity to announce the launch of Tech to Connect focused on third sector media. Eight pieces of coverage were secured, including Third Sector, Civil Society Media and Charity Digital News. Highlights from the outreach phase (26 June 2019 until 7 August 2019) included:
Generating entries – Outreach and media activity We worked with Forster Communications to identify two priority stakeholder groups to engage to generate applications: • Organisations to apply (charities and other civil society organisations across the England). • Influencers to spread the word (membership bodies and umbrella organisations working with civil society organisations). The stakeholder mapping process included segmenting applicants from a wide range of sectors, to cover the breadth of social isolation. The outreach strategy then included: • Direct emails and calls to organisations to apply, tailoring approaches to ensure the relevance of the prize was clear. • Leveraging websites, newsletters and social media platforms for influencers to spread the word, to maximise their own channels to help spread the word.
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21 relevant stakeholders posted on their social channels, including the Centre for Acceleration of Social Technology (CAST) and Campaign to End Loneliness
Eight pieces of media coverage LinkedIn posts from Nesta Challenges generated 159,854 impressions, 1,462 clicks and 43 shares Five pieces of content featured in stakeholder newsletters
Tech To Connect Challenge: Evaluation report
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Tech To Connect Challenge: Evaluation report
Prize Entries
130
applications for the prize
Civil society organisation 3.08%
Type of organisations
Charity 43.85%
London and Greater London area Lancashire
Social enterprise 53.08%
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Greater Manchester Bristol West Midlands
Member with a disability 28.5%
partnerships/ co-applications
Team make-up
Majority women 64.6% Majority men 30.7% With non-binary people 4.6%
65.4
Black/African/Caribbean 4.13%
%
applications from outside of London
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Areas with most applications
Ethnic origins
Mixed ethnicity 14.05% Other ethnic group 3.31% White 78.51%
Tech To Connect Challenge: Evaluation report
Judging criteria and process The judging criteria of a challenge prize are the detailed rules that determine how a winner will be chosen, setting out in detail how the objectives described in the challenge statement will be judged. The criteria allow success against the challenge’s aim, represented in the challenge statement, to be understood without predetermining exactly how that success will be achieved. They set out the parameters against which entries will be assessed, allowing for different services to be compared and evaluated against the challenge’s aims. The same judging criteria are generally used throughout a challenge prize, to select shortlisted teams, finalists and later, the winner. Throughout the stages of a challenge prize, the bar will be raised for what is expected under a criterion, e.g. early stage ideas at the start of a prize, fully tested prototypes at the end when a winner is declared.
The criteria for the Tech to Connect Challenge were as follows: Impact • Does the idea contribute to reducing social isolation in England? • Can the impact of the idea be measured and evaluated? Innovation • Is the idea new, or adapted or repurposed for its intended use? • Does the idea more effectively address user needs compared to what already exists? Scalability • Is there potential for the idea to grow or be replicated across England? • Can this scale or replication be done in a financially sustainable way? Feasibility • Is the idea technologically and operationally effective? • Is the idea affordable and accessible to its target users?
The pool of received eligible applications was initially assessed by a variety of entrepreneurship/inventorship experts against the criteria and a shortlist was produced for the Tech to Connect judging panel. The judges discussed this shortlist at their panel meeting and, using the criteria, selected 10 finalists who had presented a wide breadth of solutions that demonstrated potential to reduce social isolation for communities across England.
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Tech To Connect Challenge: Evaluation report
The judging panel
Carrie Deacon, Nesta
Kate Shurety, Campaign to End Loneliness
Carrie is Director of Government and Community Innovation Programmes at Nesta, leading our work on social action and people powered public services.
Kate is Executive Director of the Campaign to End Loneliness, leading public awareness raising and behaviour changing campaigns across the public and charity sectors.
Cansu Deniz Bayrak, Bethnal Green Ventures Cansu is Senior Partner at Bethnal Green Ventures, Europe’s leading early-stage tech for good venture capital, where she focuses on fundraising for their investment vehicles.
Ed Evans, The Social Tech Trust Ed is CEO of The Social Tech Trust, leading the organisation to deliver its vision of a world where social transformation drives tech.
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Sebastien Krier, Office for Artificial Intelligence Sebastien was a Policy Adviser for the UK Government’s new Office for Artificial Intelligence (AI), where he was overseeing the first comprehensive review of AI in the public sector and the publication of the AI Guide for Government.
Tech To Connect Challenge: Evaluation report
Key events and activities Discovery Day Workshop 24 September 2019
Innovator support - October 2019 to February 2020
To kick off our hands-on work with the finalists, a Discovery Day Workshop was held in Birmingham. This was a one-day workshop that included sessions covering areas including:
The Developer Society further supported the development of the prototype tech solutions by helping each of the finalists incorporate user testing, human-centred design and agile methodologies into their projects. They made design, development and strategy experts available to each organisation and provided a common support pathway throughout the project, while also tailoring assistance in line with the needs of each group.
• Human-centered design • Prototype development • Business development • Impact measurement Our implementation partner, The Developer Society, co-delivered the Discovery Day Workshop with us which featured: ✓ Co-creating an interactive agenda and sessions, outlining key resources and processes that would be followed in the coming months. ✓ Producing and sharing canvases and templates for groups to guide their briefing processes and their development plans, helping ensure that groups would have the knowledge and planning necessary to effectively engage with their tech development partners. ✓ Sharing relevant guides on testing, development and design with the cohort.
Technical Capacity Development
This support included: ✓ Running a Slack workspace where groups were encouraged to support each other communally and where they could also have questions answered by The Developer Society. In this workspace, almost 1,500 messages were sent over the course of Tech to Connect and there were on average 10+ active daily users. ✓ Hosting an hour-long monthly check-in call with each of the finalists. Each call had an agenda designed to help shape the finalists’ development at different stages throughout the challenge. Prior to the submissions date, nearly 40 monthly calls were successfully arranged and completed. ✓ Two rounds of design support, totalling five days of design time for each finalist. This time was broken into two phases: the first in late 2019 focused on producing whatever materials each group needed at that stage of their project (from new logos and wireframes, to conducting user interviews producing testing guides), the second phase helped each group produce material for their final presentations. The key element of design thinking that was embedded across all of this support was a user-focused and user-led approach that was promoted as a key input to the development and iteration of the prototype solutions. Here is a selection of quotes from different groups about the Technical Capacity Development support they received: • ‘Massive thanks from all of us for your work and creativity – we love the end products.’ • ‘Thank you so much for the time you have put in. We are very appreciative.’ • ‘Really great work from the design team.’ • ‘We’ve found the one-to-ones really useful, they really helped us think about things in a different way.’ • ‘We really appreciated all your help, support and encouragement. Truly!’ • ‘Really valuable learning exercise for us in terms of ways of working’
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Tech To Connect Challenge: Evaluation report
Outcomes
Expert webinars
Webinar topic
Details
We ran a series of webinars covering a range of topics that were selected by the finalists themselves. The aim of these webinars was to provide supplementary non-financial support on top of the technical capacity development and profiling/communications support that the finalists received.
Impact measurement
Nesta delivered a 90 minute webinar that provided some guidance on looking at impact when running a project. It offered some definition of what is impact and why it is important, as well as some practical tools on how to develop a theory of change and which tools and indicators to use. Lastly, it spent some time looking at how to ensure that sustainability is considered from the start of a project to ensure it has lasting impact on its end users.
✓ Measure the impact of the product
Forster delivered a 90 minute webinar, which included guidance on developing key messages and considerations around channels and audiences. The webinar gave finalists a chance to consider how they wanted to define themselves as an organisation to priority audience groups. On the back of the webinar, one finalist specifically cited it as a factor in helping to secure investor support.
✓ How to talk about your idea and your organisation
Nesta delivered a 90 minute webinar on how to deliver effective partnerships. The webinar looked at the different types of partnerships and what makes them good. It also spent some time discussing the partnership cycle and asked the finalists to talk through some examples of successful and unsuccessful partnerships based on their experiences. The Nesta partnership toolkit was also made available to the teams.
✓ What is a partnership
Nesta delivered a 90 minute webinar on impact investment. The aim of the webinar was for the finalists to understand the investment landscape and be able to make the best financial decision that could apply to their project.
✓ What is investment
The webinars were run by experts from within Nesta as well as Forster, and were structured as follows:
Communications and marketing
Partnerships
Impact Investment
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✓ Know how to report on it ✓ Know your target group ✓ Create your theory of change
✓ Pitching ✓ Tone of voice
✓ Mapping your partners and how to engage them ✓ What is the give, what is the get in partnerships
✓ How to approach potential investors ✓ Which type of investment is good for my business
Tech To Connect Challenge: Evaluation report
Communications support for finalists
Highlights from the ongoing profiling and celebrating success phase included:
Technical capacity development As part of the wider non-financial support offered by Tech to Connect, our communications partner Forster provided tailored communications support to the finalists as they developed their projects, giving them the tools and confidence to articulate the right messages to the right audiences. They also developed a 20-page toolkit to support finalists with their future communications and media/stakeholder outreach. The resource outlined practical profile-raising tips, as well as considerations around using the right message for the right audiences. This support was delivered as part of a secondary stage of communications activity called Ongoing Profiling & Celebrating Success. Ongoing profiling and celebrating success This stage of communications support aimed to raise the profile of finalists to media and possible future funders. Examples of this profiling activity include the development of two feature pieces for the London Evening Standard to profile some of the Londonbased finalists. With a large volume of monthly unique browsers on the Standard’s website (18,880,000), this profile for Tech to Connect reached a significant audience. Forster attended the Discovery Day Workshop to gather insights from each finalist, summarising the issue their innovation was aiming to tackle. These quotes were used to support social media activity and future media outreach. In addition, key spokespeople were pitched into speaking slots, and an interview was secured for Christina Cornwall, Director of the Health Lab at Nesta, on an episode of Cancer Research UK’s Tech Team podcast, which explores how innovation can help charities. The episode showcased the importance of the Tech to Connect Challenge and the finalists’ innovations. Finally, Forster also interviewed all five judges and created graphics with quotes that were posted on social media.
Six pieces of media coverage including two pieces on the Evening Standard website – all ten finalists were mentioned as part of the coverage
One podcast secured
17 social media posts and graphics created for Nesta Challenges handle
4 opportunities for paid editorial placement were secured and developed in target sector publications Civil Society News and Innovators Magazine Finalist showcase event An end-of-challenge event, enabling the finalists to showcase their projects, network with relevant stakeholders from across the tech sector as well as civil society and beyond, was planned for March 19 2020. The event would have seen speeches from the Minister for Loneliness, other representatives of DCMS, Nesta Challenges and the Tech to Connect judging panel, as well as demonstrations from the ten finalist teams and the announcement of the winner and two runners-up. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic that emerged in early 2020, the in-person event had to be cancelled and replicated with a digital announcement of the winner and runners-up. Pitch videos from each of the 10 finalists were uploaded to the Nesta Challenges website and promoted via social media (both organic and paid promotion), in order to replicate the showcasing element that was planned for the final event.
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Tech To Connect Challenge: Evaluation report
The finalists
Winner of the Tech to Connect Challenge, ÂŁ100,000
Runners Up of the Tech to Connect Challenge, ÂŁ75,000
Mirthy
YANA: You Are Not Alone
Greater London
London and across England
1 An online platform to provide safe and timely support for survivors of sexual assault, signposting ways to seek help and providing links to specialised services such as trauma groups, lawyers, and sexual violence units, helping build a more connected system of support. As well as providing a safe space for survivors to share their stories, the platform will enable them to see, track, and save case information, reducing the burden of repeating information to different authorities.
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A platform to enable older adults to stay active and improve their ability to interact with others whilst remaining independent at home. Mirthy will connect under-utilised communal space in retirement housing schemes with those looking for social clubs.
The Chatty CafĂŠ Scheme Lancashire A platform to help get people chatting by encouraging cafes and other venues across England to designate a Chatter & Natter table. With more than 900 tables already established, there is potential to significantly scale up the service.
Tech To Connect Challenge: Evaluation report
Winner of the Pargiter Trust award, £25,000 Music Memory Box Bristol
A simple physical kit to support people with dementia and their loved ones, that is filled with meaningful objects, music and photographs. Placing a sensor sticker on the objects in the Memory Box means they will play music, unlocking memories in a tactile way – like a personalised jukebox to reduce confusion and anxiety, and improve communication, independence and identity.
Other finalists Happy Place (Suffolk) – A digital platform developed by Suffolk Libraries that will interpret data to recommend content, experiences, activities and services that are freely available in the local community. It will connect people to convenient communitybased support designed to meet their emotional needs. PlaceCal (Manchester) – A community events calendar to help people find out about the small local events that can be hard to discover, such as coffee mornings, sewing groups, computer classes and gardening groups, which might be just around the corner.
What’s it like? (Hampshire) – This platform uses augmented reality tech to increase accessibility to a variety of settings for people on the autistic spectrum. The aim is to realistically mimic the experience of a particular situation and setting for autistic people, so they can build their confidence for real situations. CareToConnect (Greater London) – An online platform from Marie Curie to bring carers together virtually in order to provide vital support and improve their health and well-being.
Two Generations (Greater London) – This platform uses a data system to pair isolated older people with younger flatmates, to create the best match for a long-lasting home-share. CONNECT (Lancashire) – An app from The Proud Trust, which will see adult mentor volunteers support young people remotely using an app. This will be supported through a bespoke CRM System for: volunteer supervisions; young people generated school alerts for schools that need LGBT+ inclusion support; and coordinated marketing of the service through data-driven social media built into the system.
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Tech To Connect Challenge: Evaluation report
Partners Funded by
Delivered by
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) has set out a crossgovernment Civil Society Strategy, in which the government committed to exploring what more can be done to harness the power of technology to address complex social issues. In particular, how civil society can take better advantage of technological innovations to help solve some of the most pressing social challenges, such as loneliness and social isolation. DCMS also published the world’s first crossgovernment strategy to tackle loneliness, which marked a shift in how loneliness is seen and acted on, both within government and in society more broadly
Nesta is an innovation foundation. For us, innovation means turning bold ideas into reality and changing lives for the better. Within Nesta, Nesta Challenges exists to design and run challenge prizes that help solve pressing problems that lack solutions. We support the boldest and bravest ideas to become real, and seed long term change to advance society and build a better future for everyone.
Implementation partner
Communications partner
The Developer Society provided non-financial support to all finalists, which includes tailored technical capacity development support and guidance throughout the design and build of their prototype solutions.
Forster Communications provided communications support throughout the prize and to individual finalists, including media training and support with press interviews, as well as profiling in local and national media outlets.
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Tech To Connect Challenge: Evaluation report
2
Report focus This report follows the journey of the prize from beginning to end. It aims to evaluate the Tech to Connect Challenge outcomes and process in more detail.
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Tech To Connect Challenge: Evaluation report
At Nesta Challenges, we have developed a method to assess the impact of a challenge prize. An impact assessment aims to capture the changes that result from an intervention over the longer term. Within this method, evaluation is an ongoing process.
Areas of focus As outlined in the Theory of Change (page 21), Nesta Challenges sought to achieve eight specific outcomes that were identified during the design stage by the Tech to Connect Challenge team:
This report frames the findings according to three impact categories: • Breakthrough innovations • Helping innovators thrive • Systemic change To address these categories, we conducted interviews, focus groups and surveys with winners, finalists, judges and prize partners.
Breakthrough innovation 1. Generate solutions that tackle loneliness and social isolation 2. Attract socially-motivated technological solutions Breakthrough innovation 3. Mobilise civil society and tech organisations, talents 4. Build skills and capabilities of civil society organisations 5. Prompt new partnerships, collaborations and engagement between tech and civil society organisations Breakthrough innovation 6. Support scaling of loneliness and social isolation solutions into the market 7. Leverage investments (equity and grant funding) to support social tech ventures and charities 8. Raise awareness about the issue of social isolation in England
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Tech To Connect Challenge: Evaluation report
Tech to Connect Theory of Change 3b. Activities Research with experts and end-users Engaging stakeholders Scoping problem definition Define challenge statement Design prize criteria and plan
Launch and implementation Call to action Recruit experts and judges in staged assessment Induction day Capacity development support
Launch an award event Media and social media campaigns Partnership with DCMS, The Developer Society and Forster Communications Alignment with Industrial Strategy aims
3a. Impact assumptions
} } }
There are limited technological solutions that exist to tackle loneliness and social isolation
Civil society organisations lack the technological and innovation expertise to create solutions tackling loneliness and social isolation
Social isolation and loneliness solutions have not been able to penetrate the wider market and users
2. Outcomes
Attract socially-motivated technological solutions
1. Impact Goal
Generate innovative solutions that tackle loneliness and social isolation
Mobilise civil society and tech organisations, talents
Build skills and capabilities of civil society organisations
Support scaling of loneliness and social isolation solutions into the market
Leverage investments (equity and grant funding) to support civil society organisations and social tech ventures
Prompt new partnerships, collaborations and engagement in civil society organisations
Raise awareness about the potential of technology to solve the issue of social isolation in England
BREAKTHROUGH INNOVATION
Reduce loneliness and social isolation in England
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Tech To Connect Challenge: Evaluation report
3
Prize findings In this section, we will detail the findings from the prize.
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Tech To Connect Challenge: Evaluation report
The Tech to Connect Challenge set out to achieve a number of outcomes that would support the impact goal of reducing loneliness and social isolation in England (through the use of technology) as seen in the theory of change (page 21). This report frames the findings according to three impact categories, which will allow us to explain the findings in relation to this challenge in a clear and concise manner. 1. Breakthrough innovation 2. Helping innovators thrive 3. Systemic change To address these categories, we conducted interviews and surveys with winners, finalists, judges and prize partners.
Breakthrough innovation The breakthrough innovation section assesses the extent to which the Tech to Connect Challenge had an impact on attracting sociallymotivated technological solutions and generating innovative solutions that tackle social isolation and loneliness.
Outcome 1
Attract socially-motivated technological solutions
The Tech to Connect Challenge attracted socially-motivated technological solutions that would support reducing loneliness and social isolation across England. Of the 130 entries that applied, there was a wide variety of solutions given the different types of innovators that applied (see Outcome 3); this included physical technologies, social platforms and applications, and tech-enabled services. 70 per cent of assessors stated that the entries were of good quality. The prize was able to support the development of ten high quality solutions. The Tech to Connect Challenge judges felt that all the solutions offered exciting propositions to solving the issue of social isolation through new models and innovative tech-enabled services. All of the judges felt that the prize generated innovative solutions to tackle loneliness and social isolation, which met the judging criteria of impact, innovation, feasibility and scalability, with 80 per cent of judges noting that the finalist’s solutions were at the level and quality they expected, while 20 per cent felt the finalists solutions were better than what they expected.
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Tech To Connect Challenge: Evaluation report
“The challenge definitely helped us focus. As with any early-stage company, the product could have been tested in lots of different markets. Through this process, we’ve made more progress than we would have done otherwise”
“Nesta came at such an important time - I don’t know what we would have done without that funding”
Tech to Connect Challenge finalist
Tech to Connect Challenge finalist
The majority (90 per cent) of finalists had worked or been working in social isolation before the prize, while 10 per cent were new to the social isolation space. Therefore the number of finalists that developed their solutions specifically because of the prize is low as seen in Chart 1. However, most finalists were able to develop their solutions faster as a result of being part of the prize. This in large part is due to every finalist receiving £25,000 worth of grant funding to develop their solution further, whether from idea to prototype, prototype to pilot, pilot to market or market to scale. However
Most finalists (70 per cent) had only been working on their solution for less than 24 months, so the ideas and concepts were still relatively new and required further development from a business and/or technological prototyping perspective, which will be further discussed in Outcome 4. The prize also sought to ensure those who had been working in the social isolation area, but had not been able to tap into digital and technological expertise, were given the opportunity to bring their ideas and concepts to life as seen in Outcome 3.
30 per cent of finalists did develop their solutions specifically for the prize’s theme and focus, as they were inspired by the challenge statement.
Chart 1: Tech to Connect Challenge Solution Development 80% 60% 40% 20% 0% We created our project specifically to participate in the challenge
Strongly agree
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Agree
We would not have developed our project without the support of the challenge
We have developed our project faster as a result of the challenge
Neither agree nor disagree
Disagree
We have made or will make our product/service operational (i.e. in the hands of users) faster as a result of the challenge
Strongly disagree
Our project is more sustainable as a result of the challenge
We have developed our project’s business model as a result of the challenge
Tech To Connect Challenge: Evaluation report
Outcome 2
Generate [innovative] solutions that tackle loneliness and social isolation
The Tech to Connect Challenge supported the generation of innovative technological solutions that sought to tackle loneliness and social isolation. The research process identified that the most effective role of technology in this space is to enable human interaction. Therefore the focus of this prize was not only focused on technological solutions that connect people, but also technological solutions that improve the capacity of charities, social enterprises and civil society organisations to better connect people.
“All of them are innovations. Some are tech innovations, some are programme innovations - none are trotting out standard approaches, they are all trialling and piloting new things. That’s why there are challenges. If they were doing things that were not as innovative, maybe they would have progressed more as they would be following set paths.”
a few. All finalists applied a user and human-centred design approach to developing their solutions, some had huge experience in design and enhanced this further, while others were new to design and were able to build new skills. In order for these solutions to be effective, they had to be co-created and co-designed with the users. The finalists engaged over 41,000 users in testing and utilising their solutions to reduce social isolation. Many are still finalising their prototype, development and design, and plan to engage a further 5,000+ users across the next six months in order to test, pilot and iterate their solutions. The Developer Society noted the difference in finalists ranged from organisation scale and culture (from individual and small groups to charities and local government bodies), technological knowledge (from no experience to extensive experience), social missions (from volunteer groups to businesses for purpose) and project status (from an idea to an existing and long-running project). Due to the wide variety, it was difficult to compare the solutions against one another, however the Developer Society noted that all the finalists developed their solutions to become more effective at tackling loneliness and social isolation, and 67 per cent met or exceeded expectations they had from when they met finalists at the Discovery Day to the end of the prize.
Tech to Connect Challenge partner
In terms of the types of solutions at both an entrant and finalist level, 90 per cent of solutions were reactive to the issue of social isolation, while 10 per cent were preventative, yet all offered innovative approaches such as social platforms and applications, technologically-enabled services, and physical technologies. Alongside this, the finalists were all very different in who their users and beneficiaries were. Finalists developed either businessto-consumer (B2C) or business-to-business (B2B) solutions, which meant they had different direct and indirect users, and furthermore their solutions would differ hugely based on who the user is – sexual assault survivors, LGBTQ young people, elderly dementia sufferers and carers to name
Two-thirds [of the finalists solutions] met or exceeded our expectations.” Tech to Connect Challenge partner
An unexpected result of the prize, due to the quality of the challenge process and the resulting solutions, was that the Pargiter Trust (an organisation that seeks to support disadvantaged older people to be independent, healthy and socially included) offered additional money of £25,000 for another prize award.
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Tech To Connect Challenge: Evaluation report
Helping innovators thrive This impact section assesses the extent to which the Tech to Connect Challenge mobilised civil society and tech organisations, prompted collaborations and partnerships and built skills and capabilities.
Outcome 3
Mobilise charity, social enterprise, civil society and tech organisation talents
“[The] challenge helped us learn how to focus and helped develop our solution at a faster rate than we otherwise would have.” Tech to Connect Challenge finalist
The prize’s aim was to attract civil society organisations to come together to reduce the issue of social isolation across England. Through extensive outreach, the prize attracted 130 entries from 30 counties across England, of which 65.4 per cent were from outside of London. It was critical to have a wide breadth of applications from across England to capture the different situations and scenarios where social isolation occurs, from villages in rural areas to densely populated cities.The prize was able to attract charities, civil society organisations and social enterprises to apply, however 78 per cent were very small organisations with one to 50 people, 8 per cent were small-to-medium sized with 51 to 249 people and 14 per cent were larger organisations of 250+ people. While 80 per cent of finalists were smaller organisations with up to 50 people and the remaining 20 per cent being larger organisations with 250+ people. This shows the scale of organisations that the prize was targeting, with many of the smaller organisations not having the resources to build technological solutions, both in terms of staff and finances, while larger organisations faced difficulty with being able to enact and implement technological solutions quickly due to their size.
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Gender diversity was relatively good in innovators and finalists, as on average teams had between 52 per cent and 59 per cent of women working on their solutions, while a few teams had staff who identified as LGBTQ+ and nonbinary. Ethnic diversity was less strong in finalists and entrants with the vast majority being white, however, this is a wider reflection of the third sector. There can be more done to target ethnic minority groups who are working directly with their communities on solving and/or preventing social isolation. The majority of innovators applied to the Tech to Connect Challenge as they were either interested in doing something that could help people, or the prize presented a great opportunity to partner with more experienced people and organisations as seen in Table 1. Similarly, the majority of finalists were motivated to participate in the prize as they were either interested in doing something that could help people, looking to partner with more experienced people and organisations, or winning the final prize (see Table 1). Perhaps most surprisingly, 90 per cent of finalists had never taken part in a challenge prize before the Tech to Connect Challenge. This emphasises why the prize was a significant mechanism in mobilising third sector organisations working in or around the social isolation area to utilise and further advance technology applications to situations and environments of social isolation. All finalists found the prize to be at least satisfactory, with 90 per cent finding the experience to be either good or very good. Most of the finalists identified the discovery day as the highlight of the prize. The finalists noted they benefited from the different sessions on human-centered design, prototype development, business development, impact measurement as well as the opportunity to meet and network with other finalists, prize partners and stakeholders. Nearly all the finalists (90 per cent) who were new to the concept of prizes enjoyed the experience of participating in the prize. While the 10 per cent of finalists had participated in a prize before recognised that the Tech to Connect Challenge was unique in that it provided £25,000 in grant funding, offered capacity building support and connected finalists to a host of opportunities and networks.
Tech To Connect Challenge: Evaluation report
What are your primary motivations for entering the challenge?*
Innovator responses
Finalist responses
Innovators
Innovators and finalist teams breakdown Gender**
I am interested in doing something that can help people
83%
80%
Female
59%
The challenge is a great opportunity to partner with more experienced people and organisations
58%
5%
I am interested in winning the final prize
20%
60%
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10
%
4%
3%
13%
20
3%
18
10
44%
Other
11%
20%
*Note innovators and finalists were able to select multiple responses
20%
10%
0% 10%
Type of Organisation
I am interested in increasing my reputation
10%
Other
4%
%
15%
Mixed
Not known
I am interested in developing my skills in this area
60%
0%
Asian/Asian British
%
%
33%
Black/African/Caribbean/Black British
I would like to develop more partnerships
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25%
White
73%
10%
%
Trans
Ethnicity
The challenge inspired me to create something new
28%
43%
Does not identify
The challenge can show me how to transfer my knowledge/ability for new purposes %
52%
Male
49%
70% 35%
Finalists
Charity Civil society organisation
3%
53%
30%
10%
Social enterprise
60%
**Average gender proportion in innovator and finalist teams
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Tech To Connect Challenge: Evaluation report
Outcome 4
Build skills and capabilities of charities, social enterprises and civil society organisations
The Tech to Connect Challenge provided a range of opportunities for finalists to develop skills and knowledge. This included a mixture of soft and hard skills such as motivation, networking and public profile raising, impact measurement, communications, marketing and pitching, business development and planning, user testing and design, human-centred design, digital and technology. These areas were selected based on the types of support requested by finalists in their applications (see Table 3). On average, 55 per cent of finalists felt they had built, developed and/or improved their skills and capabilities (see Chart 2 for more details). Given the array of finalists and their solutions, it was difficult to offer tailored and bespoke capacity building to individual finalist needs. However, the support provided was reflective of the key requirements necessary for finalists to develop successful and sustainable solutions. The finalists each individually found value in the communications and marketing, user and humancentred design and impact measurement, as some were able to build a PR campaign around their solution, some were better able to articulate what their solution was going to do and how they would measure its impact, some were able to build a more robust and flexible business model and some were able to better frame their solution against the issue of social isolation.
“[The finalists] all upskilled throughout the Tech to Connect Challenge” Tech to Connect Challenge partner
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The prize’s implementation partner, The Developer Society hosted monthly check-ins with the finalists to understand their confidence (how clear are they on what their work through the prize is delivering?), clarity (what evidence do we have that the solution is on track?) and impact (are they getting closer to the impact they’re trying to achieve through their development?).* On average, the finalists’ confidence, clarity and impact scores increased across the four-month period of developing their solutions as seen on Chart 3. The specific support provided by The Developer Society included: creating brand toolkits; developing user experience wireframes and user interface elements; mapping out user journeys; consolidating the minimum viable product brief and developing and testing solution messaging, amongst other support. As mentioned in Outcome 2, The Developer Society felt that all solutions had benefited from the capacity building support offered and had been upskilled through the process. As their final submission, all of the finalists had to complete a development plan detailing how their solution was innovative, what impact it will have and how they will track and measure it; how feasible the solution is; and what their intentions are to scale their solution. For many finalists, the process of writing a development plan impacted the development of their solution and/or organisation, as it helped teams think through plans to build, sustain and scale up the solution, as well as refine their business models. It also helped the teams clarify any remaining issues and simplify their solutions for effectiveness. The development plan guidance and process were particularly valuable to finalists who were unaccustomed to the theory of change approach.
*This was measured on a scale, with five being the highest and one being the lowest. These scores were decided on by the three support people from The Developer Society and offered a key method for assessing not only activity in a given month, but also how each organisation was progressing over time.
Tech To Connect Challenge: Evaluation report
IP (intellectual property) advice
Business skills
10%
10
%
Legal advice
20%
User testing
30%
Types of finalist support requested
Market research
10%
Product design
50%
Financial planning/modelling
percentage of responses
Communications/ marketing/PR measurement and evaluation
10%
30% Business development grants
60%
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Tech To Connect Challenge: Evaluation report
Chart 2: Tech to Connect Challenge finalists skills and knowledge improvement 80% 60% 40% 20% 0% Better understand the problem of social isolation Strongly agree
Better understand our users
Agree
Improve our business skills
Neither agree nor disagree
Disagree
Improve our marketing skills
Improve our pitching skills
Improve our impact measurement skills
Strongly disagree
Chart 3: Tech to Connect Challenge finalists development performance 4
3
2 October Confidence
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November Clarity
Impact
December
January
Tech To Connect Challenge: Evaluation report
Outcome 5
Prompt new partnerships, collaborations and engagement in civil society organisations
The Tech to Connect Challenge sought to prompt new partnerships, collaborations and engagement between tech and third sector organisations to ensure finalists are able to work with the right types of people and organisations that can help make certain their solutions are successful. As a result, 20 per cent of entries applied in a partnership (as co-applicants) with the idea being that the rich and deep knowledge on the context of social isolation of England coupled with advanced technological expertise would allow for meaningful solutions to be produced.
“We get approached all the time about partnerships and collaborations, [the] instinct is to say yes but actually you need to look at whether the partnership makes sense – [the prize] made us sit back and assess the opportunities� Tech to Connect Challenge finalist
Though only one finalist was able to develop new partnerships and collaborations during the prize, there are an array of partnerships in the pipeline as a consequence of the prize with finalists engaging in discussions with universities, supermarkets, care homes, local councils, community groups, charities, non-governmental organisations, social enterprises and manufacturers, amongst others. For some finalists, these engagements were in the early stages, while for others, they were more advanced. The partnership and collaboration needs of finalists differed due to the difference in the type of organisation and the stage of their solutions, as mentioned in Outcomes 2 and 3 For some finalists, they had better understood the value that partnerships and collaborations could provide for them. However, through the prize process (in particular the partnerships webinar) finalists were able to assess their current situation with their future aspirations, to map out what the right partnerships and collaborations would be to either develop their solution further, adapt and apply their business model or scale to new locations and markets.
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Tech To Connect Challenge: Evaluation report
Systemic change The systemic change impact captures to what extent the Tech to Connect Challenge has influenced the civil society sector to focus on social isolation as a problem to tackle and, more generally, raise awareness about isolation in England, and how technology could help. While we wanted to measure all the systemic change outcomes during the prize’s lifetime, systemic change is the most difficult impact category to capture, as often the impacts extend beyond the life of the prize. Nonetheless, we believe that the prize created significant interest across the third sector and tech organisations on social isolation across England, as well as developing confidence in finalists to potentially enter the market, scale and gain further funding.
Outcome 6
Support scaling of loneliness and social isolation solutions into the market
The Tech to Connect Challenge sought to help finalists and their solutions develop into near-market-ready technological solutions. This differed on a finalist-by-finalist basis given that they were all at different stages, from ideas and concepts, to prototypes and early stage to near and marketready solutions, as well as the focus on different markets in housing, care, health and charity. As a result of the prize, 20 per cent of solutions are market ready, 20 per cent will be entering the market as a pilot, 50 per cent will be in the market in less than six months and 10 per cent need six more months of further development. While the majority of finalists were relatively confident in
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their solutions being fully developed regardless of winning the final prize awards - though it may take longer – some finalists stated they would definitely be able to enter the market, as the prize gave them the impetus to do so. A key component of entering a market is to have a strong and agile business model, which is where part of the innovation lies. Through the prize, over 70 per cent of finalists stated that they were able to further develop their business model. The business models proposed by finalists changed and developed over the course of the prize, as finalists were required to think about difficult questions of feasibility, sustainability and scalability of their solutions and organisations. For some who were more early stage, this provided them with an early guide that they could iterate as soon as they had fully developed the technological components of their solution, whilst for others who were more market-ready, this allowed them to better understand how their solutions would work practically. In order to ensure sustainability, finalists were able to build up their own organisation by hiring more staff for specific expertise, such as technological prototyping or user research, or buying materials for their physical products. It is critical for organisational development to occur alongside the development of the solution, so as to ensure the solutions are adequately resourced and managed to meet the potential demands of their users. Many finalists mentioned that the prize pushed them to really think about how they were going to implement their plan in practical terms, and that this was very much appreciated. Additionally, finalists have been able to reach other geographies globally in regions such as Australia, Europe, North America and South Asia, as social isolation is being more widely recognised as a global topic.
Tech To Connect Challenge: Evaluation report
Outcome 7
Leverage investments (grant funding and equity) to support social tech ventures and charities
“[The challenge] made us think more broadly – it opened our eyes about what’s possible, what’s achievable. With this money, we can go this far, then if we get further investment, we know we can go further” Tech to Connect Challenge finalist
their solutions in a clear and succinct format, while the impact investments webinar (as mentioned on page 13 and 14) offered advice and guidance on what type of investment would be suitable and how to approach potential investors. The former was more applicable to charities and civil society organisations and the latter for social enterprises. Given that most finalists are in an early stage of development, they are appropriately pursuing financial support through different forms of grant funding and investment, to ensure longevity of their solutions. This includes government funding, lottery funding, foundation funding, venture capital and/or equity investors. Those that are market-ready have already been attracting new customers to their solutions from retailers to care homes.
The Tech to Connect Challenge sought to support and develop finalists and their solutions to be able to gain further funding, though this was not possible during the life of the prize given the majority of solutions are still at a very early stage. The focus was not necessarily to secure investment (either in the form of equity or grant funding), but it was to ensure that the finalists had the necessary skills, knowledge and confidence to gain investment, from writing grant applications to foundations to pitching their solutions to potential investors. To do this, finalists were asked to explain their solutions, potential for impact, financial feasibility and plans to develop, sustain and scale beyond the life of the prize – these ten new development plans are similar to business plans, and can be used by finalists in order to gain grant funding and/or equity investment. A large part of securing investment comes down to the way in which you present and pitch your solution. For finalists, the process of writing a development plan as part of their final submission allowed them to convey
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Tech To Connect Challenge: Evaluation report
Outcome 8
Raise awareness about the potential of technology to solve the issue of social isolation in England
Social isolation and loneliness are not new topics, but they are now being acknowledged and addressed by a number of different stakeholders, from local community groups, to government ministries. There was a consensus among the finalists that the prize had raised awareness about the potential of technology to solve the issue of social isolation in England and further reinforced this as an area of focus. The majority (80 per cent) of finalists also experienced this first-hand, as all of their public profiles were raised due to being finalists in the prize;
each finalist was recognised as doing something innovative in their field. However, a few finalists felt that although their solutions were generating interest and understanding about social isolation, they wanted to be cautious to not oversell their solutions until it has been fully tested and developed. The Tech to Connect Challenge gained significant media attention (see page 7) through a PR campaign by Forster Communications. Through the communication pushes at the launch, finalists and winners announcements, the prize and finalists gained national coverage reaching over 38 million people through national media, sector publications, stakeholder websites and local outlets such as the Independent, the Evening Standard, Third Sector, Charity Digital and London Post. The prize’s online presence was very strong, with Twitter activity generating 1,215,556 impressions, as well as gaining considerable influencer engagement through Charity Communications, the Campaign to End Loneliness and the Social Tech Trust. The Tech to Connect Challenge is one of many interventions occuring in the tech for good and social isolation sector. Initiatives such as Comic Relief and Paul Hamlyn Foundation’s Tech for Good Fund were interested in how the prize was framed, and whether there may be space for social isolation innovations to feature as part of the wider work being done in the tech for good space. Alongside this, DCMS has found both internal and external traction from stakeholders, as government colleagues are interested in collaboration, while a number of stakeholders reached out to understand more about the prize’s focus of social isolation. The Tech to Connect Challenge judges, who have expertise in social tech for good, also found participating in the prize useful, as it helped to inform their own work on digital interventions across the next year.
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Tech To Connect Challenge: Evaluation report
4
Learnings, recommendations and conclusion As part of the Tech to Connect Challenge, we also investigated areas where finalists, partners and stakeholders thought improvements could be made or additional opportunities could be made available.
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Tech To Connect Challenge: Evaluation report
The learnings and recommendations not only focus on how to improve the prize process, but also consider the various areas of impact (breakthrough innovation, help innovators thrive, systemic change) and where further support during and after the prize can be provided.
The conclusion will detail the contribution of the prize, especially in the context of social isolation in England and where future innovation could be useful to further support finalists.
Learnings
Recommendations
• The prize was able to attract a diverse range of innovators from across England with different experiences in social isolation and loneliness. • The prize offered a robust yet dynamic support program for finalists through the events and the capacity building program, resulting in significant prototype and business development. • The prize’s financial incentives, in particular the £25,000 grant funding, was an important feature in allowing finalists to produce prototypes. • The prize raised awareness of the benefits and uses of technology in/ and amongst charities, social enterprises and civil society organisations working on social isolation.
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• The capacity building support would have benefited from conducting a rigorous needs assessment of finalists to appropriately match them to the support they required. This should be done at the first point of contact with finalists at the Discovery Day. • The vast nature of the topic of social isolation allowed for a breadth and depth of solutions - the prize may have benefitted from selecting finalists who were either all ideas and concepts or early stage prototypes or market-ready solutions to ensure the right support could be provided. • There needs to be a greater emphasis on attracting a wider variety of entrants, in particular, ethnic minorities and LGBTQ+, as social isolation affects many communities in different ways, therefore it is important to have an intersectional lens to this.
Tech To Connect Challenge: Evaluation report
Conclusion More recently, with the coronavirus outbreak (COVID-19) and lockdown being issued in England and the UK, social isolation has become a central concern in which the Tech to Connect Challenge finalists and their solutions could have a vital role to play in supporting people across the country as many people are having to self-isolate and quarantine. The innovative technological solutions that bring people together virtually and provide online support will be even more important as people across the UK limit their face-to-face contact to reduce the spread of the virus. The finalists’ solutions will be available for people looking for ways to stay connected and be supported during this period of self-isolation. At a programmatic level, the Tech to Connect Challenge positively met the majority of outcomes set and the finalists are now in a much stronger position to build on the success they have attained by participating in the prize. All the finalists had unique solutions which they were able to further develop into a prototype/market-ready solution, as well as presenting a viable business model and proposition. However as mentioned, all of the solutions are at different stages – some are early-stage and need further development and others are ready to enter the market.
Finalists’ capabilities were increased to the point where they can have confidence in their business acumen and their ability to pitch to investors, while simultaneously being able to make contacts and network to find further collaborations and partnerships, given how early-stage many of the solutions are. Over the course of the prize, there has been a wide range of growth from all finalists, either in their solutions or their organisations. However, there is limited and short term data from the finalists, and so it is not possible to extrapolate this information into impact. At this stage, we can only gauge the intended and prospective impact based on the various pathways the finalists have chosen. It is of great interest to see where these solutions will be in a year or three years, as there will be more data available to measure the level of impact they are having, but there is already a sense of achievement in what has been done through the prize.
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Tech To Connect Challenge: Evaluation report
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Tech To Connect Challenge: Evaluation report
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