Fellowship
OHT Community Building Fellowship
Supporting community builders to grow thriving, purpose-led communities in health innovation.
Our next round of Fellowship applications opens in September 2026. We hope you'll join us then!
Build a community without doing it alone.
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The OHT Community Building Fellowship is a practical, peer-supported programme for people who want to grow inclusive, purpose-led communities in health innovation.
Fellows are the people who host, connect, welcome, organise, experiment and help OHT communities become places people want to come back to.
Their work helps OHT back people too often unheard, push for products that work fairly and shape better practice across health innovation.
This is not a traditional leadership course. It is practical, peer-supported and community-led.
Less “stand on a stage and be impressive.”
More “bring people together, learn as you go and make something useful happen.”
What is the Fellowship?
The OHT Community Building Fellowship is for people who want to build or lead an OHT community.
It is designed for the doers, the connectors, the organisers, the thoughtful hosts, the generous introducers and the people who keep saying, “Someone should really create a space for this.”
An OHT Community Building Fellow, or OHT Fellow for short, help grow communities that are welcoming, useful and rooted in purpose.
Fellows are not just participants in the OHT ecosystem. They shape it.
Who it is for
We welcome applications from anyone passionate about building inclusive communities in health innovation, whatever your background, discipline or career stage.
You don't need to have run a community before, or have a perfectly colour-coded five-year plan (although we will admire this greatly!).
You just need to be curious, generous and willing to show up for others.
What Fellows do
As a Fellow, you might:
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host events, meetups or conversations
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welcome new people into a community
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experiment with formats and ideas
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connect members, speakers, partners and collaborators
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support communications and follow-up
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share updates and learning with other Fellows
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find partners, community members and collaborators
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support storytelling, campaigns, resources or practical outputs
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help turn community insight into useful opportunities or wider influence
You will probably also send friendly nudges, make slightly optimistic plans and discover that community-building is both glorious and occasionally held together by calendar invites.
Apply to become a
OHT Community Building Fellow
Track A: Join an existing
OHT community
Support and grow a community that already exists.
This could mean helping with events, communications, partnerships, welcoming, storytelling or the day-to-day care that keeps a community alive.
Good if you want to contribute to something already moving, learn the ropes and help a community become stronger.
Track B: Start a new
OHT community
Start a new community with support from OHT.
This could be a place-based community, a topic or practice community, an identity, stage or affinity community, or a community built around a shared question.
Good if you have spotted a gap, felt a pull or keep thinking, “This really should exist.”
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In a bit more detail...
As an OHT Fellow, you can expect:
✨ Practical sessions covering topics such as inclusive event design, community communications, facilitation, and public speaking.
🤝 A chance to learn alongside other Fellows and community builders facing similar challenges and opportunities.
🛠️ Space to explore what your community needs, try new approaches, and turn ideas into action.
📚 Real-world learning focused on the day-to-day work of community building, not abstract leadership jargon in a fancy hat.
🧠 A collaborative space to develop practical resources with fellow Fellows, based on what communities genuinely need.The Fellowship is designed to support both your community and your own growth as a builder, organiser and connector.
Nobody should have to build the thing alone in a cupboard with a cold cup of tea. Absolutely not.
Being an OHT Fellow comes with shared responsibility.
Fellows are expected to commit to the programme and play an active role in building and sustaining their community or initiative.
This includes:
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taking part in Fellowship sessions
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joining monthly All-Fellows calls where possible
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sharing regular updates on progress and challenges
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contributing to the wider Fellows community
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communicating honestly about capacity or blockers
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modelling OHT’s values, Code of Conduct and community spirit
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helping create welcoming, useful and inclusive spaces
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The Fellowship is supportive, practical and human.
Nobody is expected to be a superhero. Capes optional, burnout not encouraged.
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OHT communities can grow around many things.
You might want to build a community around:
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a city or region
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a health topic
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a professional practice
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a gap in the sector
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a shared identity
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a career stage, such as students or early-career people
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lived experience
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a question that keeps coming up
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a type of health innovation that needs better conversations
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a group of people who do not usually get to meet
You do not need to have all the answers before applying. The Fellowship helps you shape the idea.
Bring the spark. We will help with the kindling.
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If you are not sure where your community idea fits, try thinking about the 3 Ps.
Is your community about people...creating space for voices, identities, experiences or roles that need more support or visibility?
Is it about products...improving how tools, technologies or services are designed, tested, discussed or used in order to be more equitable?
Is it about practice...changing how health innovation happens through ethics, co-design, collaboration, research, policy, community-action and better ways of working?
It might be one of these. It might be all three. It might start as one and become another. Communities can be like that you see…Delightfully disobedient.
We do not believe the application itself should be the barrier. We know that putting yourself forward can already be a big step, especially if you are used to doing the work without much noise or fanfare around it.
We are looking for people who have some experience making things happen and who are ready to build in community, not just around it.
Applicants will be asked to share their experience, what kind of community they want to grow or support, and why they are interested in the Fellowship. Applications are reviewed against the Fellowship criteria, with a focus on community-building experience, collaborative mindset, inclusive leadership, and readiness to contribute.
There are two possible paths into the Fellowship:
Track A: Join an existing OHT community
For people who want to help grow and strengthen a community that already exists within OHT. We really recommend you reach out to the Fellows on the team in the community first - have a chat, see what's going on!
Track B: Build a new community
For people who want to start something new with support from OHT.
You do not need a perfect plan on day one. A clear sense of what you care about, and a willingness to shape it with others, is a very good place to start.
✨ New website, who dis? If you spot a broken link or anything behaving oddly, we'd love to know: info@onehealthtech.com. 🛠️