Fellowship 2025

The CHI-Zone Fellowship is funded by Liverpool’s Health and Life Science Innovation Zone and hosted by the University of Liverpool’s Civic Health Innovation Labs. It is intended to facilitate collaboration amongst forward-thinking professionals drawn from different sectors who are interested in designing, developing or contributing to innovative solutions to some of the most pressing challenges in health and care.

Fellows will be immersed in the Liverpool City Region’s innovation ecosystem - sitting side by side with thought leaders, innovators and industry stakeholders to develop their understanding of one another and build their professional network. As ambassadors for the CHI-Zone, Fellows will remain connected to the community beyond the programme to help facilitate in-depth collaborations, R&D and bring new health and care products and services to market.

Ultimately, our aim is to support next generation leaders to explore new technologies and innovations, expedite R&D in health and care to benefit the Liverpool City Region, and unlock more impactful product and service design and implementation through cross-sector working.

The time commitment is:

• Participation in x6 in-person sessions (2.5 hours each) taking place during November, December, January and February. These sessions will be held on Wednesday afternoons and will take place at the Liverpool Science Park and partner sites in the Liverpool City Region.

• Individual study of a small number of Online Masterclasses (approx. 30-45 minutes each) between the in-person sessions to introduce or refresh understanding of some concepts and to ensure a shared level of knowledge amongst the Fellowship group.

• Fellows will be invited to attend other CHI-Zone events organised by CHIL and will be encouraged to meet informally outside the planned sessions to help them develop a collaborative network amongst like-minded professionals.

• The Fellowship is a 4-year initiative with a cohort of Fellows due to be recruited each year.  Fellows from all cohorts will be encouraged to contribute to the community for the duration of the initiative to continue sharing ideas and forging connections.

Yes, a key aspect of belonging to the Fellowship is spending time in-person as a group, learning from experts, sharing ideas and undertaking site visits. Fellows will, also, need to attend to obtain a certificate from the University of Liverpool confirming their participation in the initiative.

Most sessions will take place at the CHIL’s offices in the Liverpool Science Park.  There will, also, be site visits within the Liverpool City Region.

We are aiming to make the programme of content as insightful and relevant as possible to the Fellowship group and the CHI-Zone Fellowship theme.  For our 2025 cohort, sessions will explore the market landscape for mental health and care technologies, offer expert insights into opportunities for innovation, improve Fellow’s knowledge and understanding of commercialisation pathways, and upskill them to navigate potential barriers in bringing solutions to market. Follow us on LinkedIn to keep up to date as speakers and the full programme are announced over the coming month.

• Executive education and development opportunities delivered by leaders in their field – including online masterclasses, site visits to partner organisations, expert presentations and informal Q&A sessions to encourage collaborative discussion.

• CHI Zone Fellows will significantly grow their cross-sector professional networks by interacting with other Fellows, key opinion leaders, and organisations that will host site visits.  The network will evolve over the course of the next five years - creating opportunities for meaningful connections to be forged amongst Fellows and for partnerships to form around collaborative opportunities to innovate.

• Fellows who complete the programme will earn the prestigious title of ‘CHI-Zone Fellow’, along with a digital badge they can showcase on professional profiles such as LinkedIn or personal websites. This recognition will not only enhance their professional credibility but, also, opens up opportunities to remain engaged through exclusive events, networking with other leaders, and representing the Fellowship in future years – strengthening both their personal brand and professional network.

• Association with the £160m Health and Life Sciences Innovation Zone, part of the Government’s national Investment Zone Programme, that is due to be delivered over a period of 10 years, which is associated with plans to secure £800m of public and private investment. 

• Potential to play a part in shaping future-facing Health and CareTech innovations by sharing knowledge and expertise with participants in other CHI-Zone initiatives and facilitating access to adjacent networks.

We want to convene a wide range of people to accelerate the development of bold, disruptive solutions to the most pressing challenges in health and care across the Liverpool City Region (LCR) and beyond.

We hope to recruit people from academic, the public sector, health and care professionals, people working in SMEs and large corporates, those working in professional services and in third sector organisations.  We are, particularly, keen to receive applications from people with specific health and care sector expertise as well as manufacturing, hardware, software and support services to development of end-to-end solutions. Applications are, also, encouraged from industry where the scope to develop products and services associated with improving mental health outcomes would amount to the creation of a new vertical for them.

We need people who become CHI-Zone Fellows to be collaborative, open-minded individuals who have the potential to lead teams and projects in the near future.  Fellows need to demonstrate a strong commitment to the Liverpool City Region and to the health of the local population.  Equally Fellows need to epitomise our high standards and to be Ambassadors of the CHI-Zone in the future.

Please note, applicants must be associated with employer organisations based in the Cheshire and Merseyside.

The programme is funded as part of the Liverpool City Region’s Health and Life Sciences Innovation Zone Programme – so, applicants must work for organisations with an operational presence in the Liverpool City Region, although we will, also, consider applicants from health and care organisations based in Cheshire in recognition of the Integrated Care Board’s geographical footprint.

You will need to complete a short application form you can download here and submit it to: chi-zone@liverpool.ac.uk

Your Employer will, also, need to provide Confirmation of Support for your application. 

The deadline for receipt of applications is Tuesday, 30th September 2025 at 5PM. 

Once applicants have been shortlisted, online interviews to determine the x20 Fellows who will form our cohort for 2025 will take place during the w/c 20 October 2025 - places will be confirmed by the end of October.

• Applications to join the Fellowship must be received by 5PM on Tuesday, 30th September 2025.

• Interviews with shortlisted applicants will take place during w/c 20 October 2025

• Fellowship places will be confirmed by the 31st October 2025

• The Fellowship programme will begin in early November 2025. 

• There will be an online Masterclass for Fellows in the first week of November.  The first in-person session is scheduled to take place Wednesday 12 November.

Your employer will need to provide confirmation of support for your application, indicating that they are supportive of your application to participate in the Fellowship, and will commit to your taking the time out of the working week to join the in-person sessions. 

We will also look for employers to support the Fellowship in other ways – for example, hosting and contributing expert input to events and, potentially, providing opportunities for piloting new ideas emerging from the Fellowship.

We will invite Fellows’ employers to place their logo on the CHI-Zone Fellowship website as a supporter of the programme.

There is no monetary cost to individual Fellows or their employer organisations for participation in the Fellowship – it is fully funded by the Liverpool City Region’s Health and Life Sciences Innovation Zone and forms an integral component of the Civic HealthTech Innovation Zone programme hosted by CHIL.