ARC South London Research Associate / Research Assistant

at  Kings College London

Job id: 090507. Salary: £37,332 - £42,099 per annum, including LWA (Research Assistant); £43,205 - £50,585 per annum, including LWA (Research Associate).
Posted: 03 June 2024. Closing date: 25 June 2024.
Business unit: Nursing, Midwifery & Palliative Care. Department: Palliative Care, Policy & Rehabilitation.
Contact details: Janet Lau. ea_irenehigginson@kcl.ac.uk
Location: Denmark Hill Campus. Category: Research.
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Job description
This is an exciting opportunity for an enthusiastic and motivated individual with a research record and interest in palliative care to gain excellent research experience by contributing to applied health research projects supported by NIHR Applied Research Collaborative South London, and preparing new fellowship and other applications.
You will work with Professors Irene Higginson and Matthew Maddocks to support existing research activity, including analysing existing data, liaising with centres, undertaking literature reviews, and supporting data collection. You will assist in identifying and applying for further funding to carry the work forward, working in collaboration with academics/researchers at the Cicely Saunders and across the ARC. The post-holder will work on improving care for people in the community, outcome measurement and decision support tools, implementation, widening access to palliative care, promoting self-management and independence right up to the end of life, particularly related to symptoms management.
The post provides an opportunity for the post-holder to hone their methodological skills and develop practical and theoretical research expertise. You will participate in all aspects of research, including development of protocols, application to ethics committees, interviewing and data collection, analysis and reporting, wider engagement, liaison with clinical services and dissemination of research outputs.
King’s applied health and social care research is ranked first in the UK in the Research Excellence Framework 2021, overall and for outputs, impact and environment. The Faculty of NMPC is ranked 2nd in the world for nursing.
Candidates should be highly motivated individuals with the ability to work independently as well as part of a team, enjoy working on multiple projects at a time, have a sound grasp of both quantitative and qualitative methods, and excellent communication skills. We are keen to hear from candidates with diverse backgrounds and experience.
Candidates with a PhD and relevant research experience will be considered for Research Associate.
This post will be offered on a fixed-term contract to 31 March 2027.
This is a full-time post.
Key responsibilities
Manage and execute all delegated areas of project and literature reviews, keeping to agreed deadlines
Liaise with funders, staff in the ARC South London, and collaborating organisations
Draft research reports and papers, including progress reports, final reports and publications, and update reporting databases, such as research fish
Maintain and update research datasets
Interview patients, carers, professionals and other relevant individuals
Analysis of data using appropriate statistical and other packages e.g. SPSS, Excel
Contribute to the dissemination of study results, knowledge mobilisation and implementation of good practice
Work flexibly and in collaboration with staff in relevant organisations involved in the projects
Participate in departmental staff meetings, researchers’ seminars and development, appraisal and team building exercises and the general research quality and administrative duties within the department at King’s
Any other duties consistent with the grade of the post, as agreed with line managers. This may include undertaking ad hoc reports and representing the project at meetings or conferences
The above list of responsibilities may not be exhaustive, and the post holder will be required to undertake such tasks and responsibilities as may reasonably be expected within the scope and grading of the post.
Skills, knowledge, and experience

Essential criteria

• A degree in health or social sciences or similar
• PhD in health or social sciences or similar (for Research Associate)*
• Relevant research (e.g. applied health research, palliative care) experience – in particular literature reviews, interviewing, protocol development, conducting studies, analysing results, reporting findings
• Demonstrated understanding of research methods, including quantitative research, mixed method research, and experimental and quasi-experimental study designs in health services research
• Previous experience in analysing research data to a high degree of accuracy, with a good level of numeracy – with commitment to rigour of analysis, and sound research computing skills, and ability to learn new packages – e.g. word-processing, databases, Reference Manager, SPSS, graphics packages
• Excellent presentation and communication skills, and ability to adapt to different audiences, evidenced by presenting at relevant meetings, research publications
• Well organised, and able to work independently and work to tight deadlines, prioritising competing workloads
• Evidence of being able to work well with others and work as a team with respect of other members of the department, students and colleagues
• Commitment to high quality research and teaching and to commitment to objectives of palliative care

• Commitment to actively fostering inclusion, equality and diversity

  Desirable criteria

• Research or clinical experience in palliative care

• Experience of interviewing users about sensitive issues
• Experience of making submissions to funders for research grants
• Recent relevant publications in leading academic journals with evidence of research impact
• Please note that this is a PhD level role but candidates who have submitted their thesis and are awaiting award of their PhDs will be considered. In these circumstances the appointment will be made at Grade 5, spine point 30 with the title of Research Assistant. Upon confirmation of the award of the PhD, the job title will become Research Associate and the salary will increase to Grade 6.

Further information
Interviews will be conducted early in July 2024.
This post is subject to Disclosure and Barring Service and Occupational Health clearance.

Please refer the Job description for details