Professor Richard Jones

Current positions

Professor of Clinical Biomechanics

Richard is a clinical biomechanist and joined the University of Salford in 2003 as a research assistant and joined the academic faculty in 2004. Prior to joining the University of Salford, Richard was employed in research roles in UK Ministry of Defence Research establishments and also at the Arthritis Research Epidemiology Unit at the University of Manchester. Richard founded the clinical gait analysis service at the University of Salford utilising the gold-standard gait laboratories which are situated in the University.

Richard's PhD research investigated orthotic management in individuals with knee osteoarthritis, an area which he still works in and supervises students regularly in. Richard's passion lies in determining how objective biomechanical and physiological variables can be utilised in the management of lower limb injury and disease. He is Research Programme Lead for Knee Biomechanics and Injury at the University of Salford and a founding member of the Research in Osteoarthritis in Manchester group at the University of Manchester. Current research areas are within the conservative management of medial knee osteoarthritis including randomised clinical trials and case-cohort trials of different interventions for reducing pain and biomechanical stress, patient and patient behaviour factors following total knee replacement and risk factors and return to sport indicators following knee injury is another theme of research currently being investigated.

Externally, Richard is the clinical biomechanics lead at the Manchester Institute of Health and Performance (MIHP) through the partnership the University has with this world-leading institute. He also sits on Versus Arthritis Musculoskeletal Disorders Research Advisory Group. Richard has successfully supervised over 10 individuals to PhD completion with several other research students at lower awards and published over 80 peer-reviewed articles and numerous conference proceedings. Currently, Richard is the Unit of Assessment 3 (UOA3) submission lead for the REF2021 and also co-lead of the Research Outcome Monitoring and Evaluation (ROME) panel.  

Areas of research

Clinical Biomechanics, Knee Osteoarthritis, Orthotic Management, Footwear Evaluation, Knee Injuries, Rehabilitation load carriage