Health OpenSpaces

Welcome to Health OpenSpaces – a UK Young Academy member-led initiative to create a forum where attendees actively shape the agenda, engage in discussions, and share valuable insights aimed at shaking up the future of healthcare.

By bringing together a mix of professionals, researchers, patients, artists, policymakers, commissioners, and advocacy groups, the forum provides an inclusive space where diverse perspectives connect and create change. With a focus on interdisciplinary collaboration, with attendees anonymous in terms of their role and background, Health OpenSpaces ensures that everyone’s voices are heard, valued and can make a difference.

Built on partnerships with professional open-space organisations, Health OpenSpaces is designed with scalability in mind, providing a framework that can be adapted to address a range of healthcare challenges. Beginning with one workshop focused on a particularly difficult question, the project will quickly be able to influence social conversations and have concrete impact, while leaving a clear process for reuse. This structure therefore not only supports the immediate goals of the initiative, but also enables sustainable, ongoing efforts to bring underrepresented voices to the forefront of healthcare research.

For its first forum, Health OpenSpaces will centre around the question, “What would it take to change the underrepresentation of pregnant people in medical research?” This question reflects growing public and professional attention to the inadequacies and inequities in healthcare aimed at women, while being specific enough to have a productive, targeted conversation that is nonetheless relevant to many different fields. 

Key project outcomes:

– Health OpenSpaces will host annual events bringing together professionals, researchers, patients, policymakers, advocacy groups, and other community members to promote innovative thinking and solutions in healthcare.  

– Each Health OpenSpaces event will include a structured mentorship programme, pairing early career professionals with experienced leaders across sectors. This approach supports professional development and knowledge-sharing, and builds a foundation for future leaders who are well-versed in collaborative, community-driven approaches to healthcare innovation. 

– Each Health OpenSpaces event will aim to produce concrete outputs, which might include illustrative or creative representations of the conversation, policy briefs, or other documentation aimed at engaging people more broadly than the academy with suggested, expert-derived recommendations. 

– To extend its impact, Health OpenSpaces will develop a flexible event model that can be adapted to various healthcare challenges and contexts. Through continuous feedback and refinement, this framework will provide a foundation for future interdisciplinary collaborations, enabling communities to address new societal health issues sustainably over time. 

How to get involved:

Please reach out to enquiries@ukyoungacademy.org, and we will connect you with the project team.