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The future of work
How do we design organisations that support performance without depleting the people inside them?
Founding Fellows Prospectus2026
Designing for Human Flourishing
Rethinking the conditions in which people live, work and belong.
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The provocation
We live longer, move faster and possess tools of extraordinary power.
Yet many of the defining challenges of the 21st century are profoundly human: loneliness, declining trust, burnout and a growing sense of disconnection. Perhaps our greatest challenge is no longer how to advance society, but how to help people flourish within it.
Research context WHO Commission on Social Connection, From Loneliness to Social Connection, 2025 · Gallup, State of the Global Workplace, 2026 · OECD, Social Connections and Loneliness in OECD Countries, 2025
The conditions for human flourishing are shaped by:
The organisations we work within.
The cities we inhabit.
The technologies we depend on.
The institutions that organise public life.
Each was shaped by the defining needs and assumptions of its time. Yet many still optimise for measures that tell us little about whether people feel healthy, connected, capable or fulfilled.
The Philia Institute exists to ask what should come next.
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Our philosophical foundation
A field of inquiry
What would it mean to design society for human flourishing?
This question reaches across the institutions, environments and technologies that shape everyday life. The Institute will approach it through multiple fields of inquiry, beginning with some of the most consequential questions of our time.
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The future of cities
How do we create cities that enable connection, participation and belonging alongside movement and growth?
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The future of technology
How do we build tools that strengthen human agency rather than compete relentlessly for attention?
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The future of public life
How do public institutions move from responding to strain towards building the conditions for resilience and flourishing?
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The future of community
How do we create the social infrastructure through which relationships, trust and belonging can form?
These inquiries are starting points within a much wider field. Across them lies a shared challenge: translating what we know about human wellbeing into the conditions of everyday life.
The burden of flourishing should not rest solely on individuals.
It should also be carried by the world we design around them.
It should also be carried by the world we design around them.
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From inquiry to influence
Instruments of inquiry
Different questions require different ways of working.
The Institute draws on a flexible set of research, design and public-engagement instruments. Each inquiry may use a different combination, depending on the question, the evidence and the form of change being pursued.
Research
Original studies, evidence synthesis and field inquiry.
Live Labs
Questions explored in real-world settings.
Sprints
Focused investigation, reframing and prototyping.
Dialogue
Salons, roundtables and interdisciplinary exchange.
Publishing
Ideas developed into useful public knowledge.
Influence
Evidence carried into practice, policy and institutional design.
These are not sequential stages. They may be combined, repeated or adapted as an inquiry develops.
Collaboration
The Institute encourages interdisciplinary consortia involving universities, research centres, organisations, governments and civic institutions, recognising that the most important questions rarely belong to a single discipline or sector.
Research may be initiated by the Institute or developed collaboratively with partners who share its commitment to advancing human flourishing.
Editorial identity
Design Papers
The Institute will develop a distinctive and cumulative body of work, with each publication contributing to a wider intellectual agenda.
Designing for BelongingSocially healthy cities
Designing for TrustOrganisations in the age of AI
Designing for ConnectionSocial infrastructure and urban life
Designing for Human AgencyTechnology built around people
Pathways into practice
The form follows the question.
Some inquiries may lead to a Design Paper or public framework. Others may take the form of a Live Lab, policy dialogue, institutional partnership or practical intervention. The Institute will not force every question into a predetermined programme or publication cycle. The pathway will follow the evidence, the people involved and the form of change the work can credibly produce.
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THE PHILIA INSTITUTE
FOUNDING FELLOWS
Why become a Founding Fellow?
A place to develop ideas that can touch reality.
The Fellowship is for people who want their thinking to travel further than a report, a presentation or a single organisation. It offers a circle of serious peers, a platform for original work, and the opportunity to help shape a new field of inquiry around human flourishing.
Close the loop between thought and practice
Questions can move through research, Live Labs, interdisciplinary dialogue and Design Papers. Ideas meet real people and real environments while they are still being developed, not only after publication.
Reach an audience without becoming a marketer
The Institute provides an editorial and public platform through which Fellows can develop, publish and share serious work with communities, organisations and decision makers.
Help define a field from the beginning
Founding Fellows will not simply join an established programme. Their questions, methods and contributions will help shape the Institute's intellectual direction and body of work.
Find peers across disciplinary boundaries
The cohort brings together researchers, designers, policymakers, technologists, founders and public leaders who may work in different fields but are drawn to the same deeper questions.
Pursue work beyond one employer's priorities
The Fellowship creates room for questions that are too interdisciplinary, exploratory or long term to sit comfortably inside a quarterly plan, client brief or conventional academic track.
Create work with enduring public value
The ambition is not another event or isolated publication. It is a cumulative body of work that can influence how organisations, institutions and communities think and act over time.
You may find a home here if
The Fellowship is built around a shared way of thinking.
Around this table, ideas carry more weight than job titles. We are interested in the quality of thought, the integrity of the person bringing it, and their genuine alignment with the mission.
You remain intellectually curious, regardless of how experienced you are.
You approach complex questions with humility and openness.
You value intellectual honesty and are willing to change your mind.
You pursue excellence because important work deserves rigour.
You are generous with ideas and enjoy learning across disciplines.
You feel a genuine resonance with the Institute's mission to advance human flourishing.
Founding Fellows will always be among the people who helped build the Institute at its beginning.If this feels like the kind of work and community you have been looking for, we would like to hear why.
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Founding Fellows
The founding cohort
For people whose work shapes how others live.
Across government, academia, business, design, technology, health, culture and civil society, people are already asking different versions of the same question: how might we create better conditions for human life? The Institute brings them together to develop ideas capable of influencing organisations, public institutions and society.
Contribution matters more than title.
Founding Fellows will help shape the Institute's early inquiries, research, dialogue and public work. We are seeking people with intellectual seriousness, practical judgement and the ability to carry ideas into the rooms where consequential decisions are made.
Research
Policy
Design
Publishing
Live Labs
Dialogue
Sohini Sengupta · Founder & Chair
About the Chair
Sohini is a strategist, entrepreneur and systems thinker working at the intersection of technology, human flourishing and social infrastructure.
Over nearly two decades, she has led innovation and transformation work across Europe, Asia Pacific and the Middle East. That experience convinced her that many of today's defining challenges require more than new products or programmes. They require new ways of thinking about the conditions society creates for people.
Alongside the Institute, she is building Philia Life, a human flourishing company beginning with SocialFit in Dubai.
Expression of interest
Join the founding conversation
To proceed, please include:
- A current CV or professional biography
- The field or question you would like to explore
- A brief note on why it matters and what you would bring
- Relevant work, publications or projects
Every enduring institution begins with a small group of people who choose to shape it before its reputation is established.
This invitation is extended to the thinkers, builders and visionaries who wish to help shape the Institute's direction, culture and contribution from its very beginning.
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The Philia InstituteExpression of interest
The founding cohort
Begin the conversation.
Tell us a little about your work, the questions that matter to you, and the contribution you hope to make. Expressions of interest are reviewed personally and with care.
What happens nextSelected applicants will be invited to a conversation with the Founder & Chair. This is not a conventional job application.
Shape the institution from its beginning.THE PHILIA INSTITUTE
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