Henry Li is a Senior Research Fellow in Health and Innovation Policies at the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP).

- An Open Society Foundations project to rethink the economics of, and explore a greater role of the public sector in health innovation, for which Professor Mazzucato is the Principle Investigator;
- The establishment and development of the new World Health Organization (WHO) Council on the Economics of Health for All, chaired by Professor Mazzucato.
Additionally, Henry advises and implements policy engagement, relationship building, and advocacy activities pertinent to broader health, innovation and industrial policies.
He is a member of the IIPP Vatican Task Force that formulates policy advice to the Vatican COVID-19 Commission’s Economy Taskforce.
Henry is involved in IIPP’s graduate training programme as an advisor to PhD students, and a tutor and dissertation/placement supervisor for the IIPP Master of Public Administration (MPA) in Innovation, Public Policy and Public Value.
Prior to joining IIPP, Henry gained experience working with policymakers representing different countries and constituencies through various health policy projects, including at the Review on Antimicrobial Resistance (chaired by Jim O’Neill), Cancer Research UK, WHO, UNICEF China, and Chatham House.
Henry holds a PhD in Public Health and Policy from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, where he studied public administration in health policy at central and local levels in China, using a national campaign on antibiotic stewardship in hospitals as a case study.
Selected publications
- Academic working papers
- Mazzucato, M and Li, H.L.(2020). A market-shaping approach for the biopharmaceutical industry: governing innovation towards the public interest.UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose, Working Paper Series (IIPP WP 2020-21). Available at: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/public-purpose/wp2020-21
- Mazzucato, M and Li, H. L. (2020). The Entrepreneurial State and public options: Socialising risks and rewards. UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose, Working Paper Series (IIPP WP 2020-20). Available at: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/public-purpose/wp2020-20
- Book chapters
- Mazzucato, M., & Li, H. L. (2021). The Entrepreneurial State and Public Options. In Politics, Policy, and Public Options (pp. 20–44). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108767552.003
- Hanson K., Anderson S., Li H.L., McPake B., Palafox B., Russo G., Shretta R. (2020) Chapter 16. Pharmaceuticals. In: Merson M; Black R; Mills A (eds.) Global Health: Diseases, Programs, Systems and Policies (Fourth Edition).
- Journal articles
- Mazzucato, M., & Li, H.L. (2021). A Market Shaping Approach for the Biopharmaceutical Industry: Governing Innovation Towards the Public Interest. Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 49(1), 39-49 https://doi.org/10.1017/jme.2021.8
- Dar, O. A., Hasan, R., Schlundt, J., Harbarth, S., Caleo, G., Dar, F. K., Littmann, J., Rweyemamu, M., Buckley, E. J., Shahid, M., Kock, R., Li, H. L., Giha, H., Khan, M., So, A. D., Bindayna, K. M., Kessel, A., Pedersen, H. B., Permanand, G., … Heymann, D. L. (2015). Exploring the evidence base for national and regional policy interventions to combat resistance. The Lancet, 387(10015), 285–295. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(15)00520-6
- De Silva M.J., Cooper S., Li, H.L., Lund C., Patel V. (2013). Effect of psychosocial interventions on social functioning in depression and schizophrenia: Meta-analysis. British Journal of Psychiatry. (Vol. 202, Issue 4, pp. 253–260). https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.bp.112.118018
- Policy reports
- Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose. (2020). Reshaping Global Health Systems in Response to COVID-19, UCL IIPP COVID-19 Briefing Papers 03 (June 2020)
- Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose. (2020). Stakeholder capitalism during and after COVID-19, UCL IIPP COVID-19 Briefing Papers 01 (April 2020).
- Mazzucato, M. and Li, H. L. (2019). Health innovation re-imagined to deliver public value. UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose, Policy Brief series (IIPP PB 05).
- In the media
- Capitalism won't save us from Covid, no matter what Boris Johnson might think (The Guardian) by Mariana Mazzucato and Henry Lishi Li
- Designing vaccines for people, not profits (Project Syndicate/Social Europe) by Mariana Mazzucato, Henry Lishi Li and Els Torreele
- Johnson has taken the wrong economic lesson from the Covid crisis (Financial Times) by Mariana Mazzucato (with writing contribution from Henry Lishi Li)