Nesta has been practising a number ways to improve uses of data and measurement for innovation policy. This short report acts as a summary of recent work in this area.

Key findings:

• Tools for measuring economic phenomena do not always make it easy for policymakers to answer important questions about innovation.
• From better use of conventional statistics to trialing methods in machine learning, Nesta have been working with a number of partners for several years to make the most of available and new data sources.
• Data needs to be useful and insightful to policy makers. This includes trialing methods in mashing and merging datasets, and presenting them in interactive ways.

The report finishes by presenting six case studies with more specific detail about methods for measuring, collecting, presenting and using data.