Professor Bob Doherty

Dean of the School for Business and Society

Principal Investigator of FixOurFood

School for Business and Society

University of York

Church Lane Building

York Science Park

Heslington

York YO10 5ZF

Biography

Bob Doherty is Dean of the School for Business and Society at the University of York. Since joining York in 2012 he has won £10.1m in grant funding with £9.4m as Principal Investigator including, ‘IKnowFood’ in 2016 (£3.4m) and more recently in 2020 a £6m award from the Transforming Food Systems SPF for a programme titled ‘Transformations to Regenerative Food Systems (TReFS) renamed ‘FixOurFood’. Bob referred to this project during YorkTalks 2021 when he discussed how the pandemic could be a turning point in the way we feed ourselves. 

Bob was seconded for 3-years (April 2019-March 2022) as a policy fellow into UK Government Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) on a new science research programme launched to inform DEFRA policy-making. In addition, he is former University of York lead for N8 AgriFood with the role as Director of the N8 Food Systems Policy Hub and former research theme leader for sustainable food in the York Environmental Sustainability Institute (YESI). Furthermore, he is a trustee of the Fairtrade Foundation and is a member of the Fera Science Committee. Bob was Deputy Dean at the York Management School (2013-2015), then Acting Dean (2015-2016).

Bob specialises in research on hybrid organisations namely the marketing and management aspects of fair trade organisations and social enterprises and has published in Nature, Journal of Business Ethics and the International Journal of Management Reviews. Recently his research interests have developed to look at the role these hybrid organizations play in food systems resilience. Bob is Founding Editor Emeritus of the Social Enterprise Journal – after 10-years as Editor in Chief. Prior to moving into academia Bob spent nearly five years as Head of Sales and Marketing at the Fairtrade social enterprise, Divine Chocolate Ltd.

Bob has also provided both oral and written evidence for a range of House of Commons select committees, House of Lords Food and Farming enquiries and for the National Food Strategy, where he has played the role of rapporteur at public dialogues.

Main Research Interests

Professor Doherty is particularly interested in researching those enterprises, which promote both social welfare and reduce environmental degradation, namely hybrid organisations such as social enterprises and fair trade organisations. More recently, his research has developed to study how these organisational types can contribute to transforming food systems. Bob has published in Nature, Journal of Business Ethics and the International Journal of Management Reviews.

Bob currently supervisors a range of funded PhD students not least a CLAHRC, White Rose PhD student on UK Food Poverty, a White Rose DTC ESRC Big Data Network Award PhD investigating what can we learn from Big Data in food trust incidents and a third White Rose DTC funded PhD on Supply Chains as Socio-Ecological Systems: Fair Trade and Cooperative Governance as a means to Building Resilience.

Funded Projects

Since joining York in 2012 he has won £10.1m in grant funding with £9.4m as Principal Investigator including, ‘IKnowFood’ in 2016 (£3.4m) and more recently in 2020 a £6m award from the Transforming Food Systems SPF for a programme titled ‘Transformations to Regenerative Food Systems’ https://www.ukri.org/news/healthier-food-healthier-planet-transforming-food-systems/

This new UKRI award, which involves five other universities (Oxford, Leeds, Manchester, Cranfield and City) plus twenty-one stakeholder partners, has a vision for a Yorkshire food system constituting regenerative and equitable healthy eating for young children, supported by regenerative hybrid food economies and regenerative farming. This project will look at interventions in food retailing and farming to address issues such as childhood obesity, sustainability in agriculture and global warming.

Research Impact

Since April 2019, Bob has been seconded into the UK Department of Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), working as part of a new Systems Programme Research team on policy interventions in the food system eg the new National Food Strategy. Furthermore, he was a key advisor on the Coop new Future of Food Strategy. Bob also sits on the Fairtrade Foundation board as the founder members nominated trustee. 

Projects

Bob is Principal Investigator on a recent ESRC Business Boost grant win (2018) titled ‘Role of Hybrid Organisations in designing Inclusive Value Chains for Smallholders: Best Practice Industry Collaborative Hub’. Bob is Co-Investigator on another recent ESRC grant win (2018) ‘Sustainable Consumption, the Middle Classes and Agri-food Ethics in the Global South’ and he has also just won a Newton Fund Grant ‘Pathways to transformation of small-scale agriculture in the Mekong Region’, which has led to the development of an institutional link with Chiang Mai University.

Bob has worked on a range of funded projects including a White Rose Grant in collaboration with Dr Anne Tallontire at the University of Leeds School of Earth and Environment and Professor David Oglethorpe at Sheffield University Management School titled; Building up Resilience in Supply Chains (BURNS). In addition, he has worked with principal investigator Dr Mike Tse on a British Academy Grant investigating Big Data and the Horse Meat scandal. Furthermore, Bob has won research funding from the Institute of Small Business Entrepreneurship (ISBE) RAKE Award from Economic Social Research Council looking at how Local Economic Partnerships (LEPs) and Social Enterprises are creating Growth in the social sector and a Fairtrade Foundation Grant to investigate and compare the development of fair trade markets in four European territories (United Kingdom, Italy, France and Switzerland).

Policy Work

Bob has provided both oral and written evidence in 2020 to the House of Commons, International Trade Committee (ITC):

https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5801/cmselect/cmintrade/286/28602.htm 

The House of Commons, Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) Committee 2020:

https://houseofcommons.shorthandstories.com/EFRA-covid19-food-supply/index.html

Plus two co-authored pieces of written evidence in 2020 to House of Lords Select Committee on Food Poverty and Health

https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/408/food-poverty-health-and-environment-committee