About Nest Insight

Established by the UK government as part of its auto enrolment initiative, Nest is one of the world’s fastest growing pension schemes by member numbers.

Nest members are overwhelmingly those with lower and moderate incomes, and those working in sectors with employment patterns that have traditionally made them hard for the pensions industry to reach. Many had no prior experience of pensions or investment products before enrolment into Nest. Thanks to auto enrolment, millions more are saving for later life. Yet most still face significant obstacles on the road to a comfortable retirement.

With 11 million members and counting, Nest is building a rich store of data and insights on the needs and behaviours of this previously under-researched population. That’s why we set up Nest Insight – a public-benefit research and innovation centre. 

Nest Insight’s mission is to find ways to support people to be financially secure, both today and into retirement. To do this, we conduct rigorous, cutting-edge research, working collaboratively with industry and academic partners to understand the needs and behaviours of the new generation of savers created by the UK’s pensions auto enrolment system. We also consider how self-employed workers and others at risk of missing out on pension saving can be brought in.

We take a holistic view, looking at saving in the round and the tensions people can experience when weighing decisions about different kinds of saving, debt and consumption. We use our data-driven insights into the financial challenges facing households to identify and then test practical, real-world solutions. We organise conferences, roundtables and other events to spark new thinking and exchanges about issues and opportunities going forward.

We share all our findings widely and freely, to help inform industry and policymakers so that people around the world can benefit from our work.

Our work is funded by a combination of sponsorships, grants and in-kind support from organisations that share our values. By forming partnerships and working together, we believe our work will make a difference to millions of people.

Find out more about working with us

Our goals and values

Nest Insight goals

  • Rigorous quantitative and qualitative research, in collaboration with industry, academics and policy makers
  • A comprehensive programme of expert discussion events
  • Testing practical solutions
  • A series of publications, briefing papers and online resources, complemented and promoted by a social media engagement programme.

Nest Insight values

  • Academic rigour
  • Practical approach
  • Partnership working
  • Developing and testing innovative solutions.

Further information

Work with us
The Nest Insight team
Our partners

Nest Corporation

Nest Corporation is the Trustee of Nest. It was established by legislation as a public corporation to run the Nest pension scheme. Nest Corporation is accountable to Parliament through the Department for Work and Pensions but is generally independent of government in its day-to-day decisions.

More information about Nest