Professor Rich Smith (He/Him)

Richard Smith is Professor of Public Health Economics and Deputy Pro Vice Chancellor for Planning and Projects. He was previously the University's Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Strategy Integration and Resources, and prior to Exeter was at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), where he served as Head of the Department of Global Health & Development from 2008-2011, and as Dean of the Faculty of Public Health & Policy from 2011-2018.

Richard has experience with a wide range of economic methods, including micro-, macro-, behavioural-, and political-economic techniques, applied to various areas, from health outcome assessment to antibiotic resistance. He has pioneered the macro-economic modelling of communicable and non-communicable diseases and the economic analysis of the impact of trade and trade agreements on health and health care across a range of areas. Most recently he has focussed on the assessment of fiscal measures related to public health, including collaboration in the evaluation of the UK 'sugar tax' and several projects related to the economics of food systems, much of which has been funded by the NIHR and focussed on the UK. Richard was a member of NIHR-funded National School for Public Health team when he was at the LSHTM, and part of the team submitting the successful proposal for membership by Exeter.

Richard has received research funding in excess of £60m, with more than 300 publications and an h-index of over 130. He is a senior Editor for Social Science & Medicine, and has had previous editorial responsibilities for journals including Health Economics, Journal of Public Health and Globalization and Health. He has been member and chair of various research funding panels, and expert advisor for numerous organisations, including WHO, WTO, World Bank, OECD and various countries. He is currently a member of the TRAC Development Group, Office for Students, the Science Council of the Food Standards Agency, and the UKRI Tackling Infections Funding Panel. Richard has been elected as an Honorary Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health, Fellow of the Royal Society of Public Health, Fellow of the Royal Society for Arts, Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Qualifications:

• 1990 BA Economics, University of York
• 1991 MSc Health Economics, University of York
• 2007 PhD Health Economics, University of East Anglia

Current Grants:

·       Melendez-Torres GJ, Smith RD, Fleming L, Green J, Morrisey K.  School for Public Health Environments Research at Exeter (SPHERE): NIHR School for Public Health Research (Phase 3). NIHR, 2022-2029.

·       Bate A, Beeson M, Breckons M, Breheny K, Brown H, Coast J, Chandan JS, Cockburn N, Fernandez-Garcia C, Frew E, Hammond B, Hollingsworth B, Hosseinijebeli S, Jackson L, Laverty A, Medina-Lara A, Powell K, Ramsay S, Smith RD, Vale L, Wildman J (alphabetical). Rational approaches to ICS allocative decision making for population health, in times of constraint. SPHR Areas for Research Innovation (AfRI) award, 2024-2027.

·       Mytton O, White M, Adams J, Amies-Cull B, O’Connell M, Smith RD, Medina-Lara A, Dobson P, Vogel C, Rahilly J, Lawson L.  A public health evaluation of a voluntary ban on the use of price promotions to sell foods high in fat salt and sugar in two UK supermarket chains. NIHR Public Health Research Programme Funding, 2025-2027.

·       Keogh-Brown M, Tarp-Jensen H, Huntley J, Milner J, Litherland R, Hussein S, Smith RD.  Modelling the health, social care and macroeconomic impacts of dementia policies in the UK. NIHR Policy Research Programme, 2025-2027.

·       Adams J, Boyland E, Forde H, Scarborough P, Stead M, Smith RD, White M [alphabetical after PI].  A multicomponent evaluation of new restrictions on marketing of less healthy foods in England. NIHR Public Health Research Programme Funding, 2025-2028.

·       Smith RD, Medina-Lara, Cornelsen L, Law C, Kaur A, Amies-Cull B, Derbyshire D.  SHIFTS-UPF: Study on Health Impacts of Food Taxes and Subsidies affecting Ultra Processed Food. NIHR Public Health Research Call ‘Ultra-processed foods’, 2026-2028.

·       Adams J, White M, Forouhi N, Smith RD.  Ultra-processed foods: mechanisms of harm to human health and harm reduction.  MRC (population and systems medicine programme), 2026-2031.