King's College London

About Us

King’s College London is a leading University with nine Faculties. As part of  King’s Health Partners, we have an excellent environment for health care interaction and a strong focus on mentoring and career development.

The 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF2021) placed King’s applied and allied health research 1st for: overall proportion of research rated 4* (world-leading, the best mark possible), research papers rated 4*, impact rated 4*, environment rated 4*(joint), Grade Point Average and Power.  REF2021 rated as world-leading: 100% of our environment, 86% of our impact and 70% of our research overall. Over 95% of our research overall was rated as world-leading or internationally excellent.

Dementia is a key theme of research at King’s including the entire disease course for adults needing support encompassing specialities of dementia care, social care and palliative care from across our health and care faculties in Nursing, Midwifery and Palliative Care, Social Science and Public Policy, and Institute of Psychology, Psychiatry and Neurosciences.  Ageing Research at King’s (ARK) is an active multi-disciplinary group facilitating successful collaborations across faculties and specialties.

The  Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery & Palliative Care (NMPC) is based in the heart of central and south London. It includes the  Cicely Saunders Institute for Palliative Care, Policy & Rehabilitation, the premier Institute for Palliative Care, bringing together clinical, research and education teams. 

Our applied clinical and health multidisciplinary research transforms therapies, the healthcare experience and outcomes for patients and those important to them, wherever they are cared for. Our award-winning research capacity building programmes targets pre- and post-doctoral, and early and mid career researchers to pursue rewarding careers. Public engagement  and involvement is central to our research, supported by  King’s Engaged Research Network, and  NIHR Applied Research Collaborative South London.

About the role

We are seeking an innovative talented individual as the Research Associate/Fellow for the national Dementia Network EMPOWER- Empowering a Meaningful Life for All. The Network brings together strengths in dementia care, social care, primary care and palliative care, with lived experts and communities to realize sustained change to support and empower equalities in care for people living and dying with dementia, and their families. The Network is funded the UKRI Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).

This is opportunity to join our team in the  Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery & Palliative Care and work within a multidisciplinary team across health and social care faculties at King’s College London and with our university and community partners, and lived experts by experience. The Network is led by Professor Catherine Evans, King’s College London with co-lead Dr Emma Wolverson, University of Hull.

The Network aims to identify, promote and sustain high-quality care for people with dementia and complex needs, and their families, for them to live as well as possible throughout the disease trajectory, including into end of life and bereavement.

You will take a leading role overseeing the co-creation of the Network with our partners and lived experts to build a springboard harnessing inclusive approaches for meaningful engagement and collaboration, technologies to innovate care, and enthuse and foster talented researchers, practitioners and community partners. You will contribute to refinement and delivery of the public engagement workshops and Policy Lab to create our Network Manifesto detailing our priorities for change, public engagement activities and ‘sand-pit’ events for small research project funding.

This is a full time role (35 Hours per week), and you will be offered on a fixed term contract until 31st March 2028.

We strongly encourage applications from underrepresented groups including those from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic groups, the LGBTQI+ community, those who are neurodiverse and those with a disability.

About you

To be successful in this role, we are looking for candidates to have the following skills and experience:

Essential criteria

1. A degree in health or social sciences or similar, awarded to a high level (e.g. first or 2:1)
2. PhD awarded in health or social sciences or similar*
3. A proven track record of programme management in research
4. Experience in public and policy engagement
5. Experience of involvement of lived experts by experience in research and/or community partners
6. Highly organised, self-motivated, ability to work independently as well as part of a team, ability to work to deadlines and prioritise competing workloads, flexible and able to meet tight deadlines, ability to manage and support other staff
7. Excellent written and oral communication skills. Able to produce high quality reports and papers, demonstrating attention to detail and accuracy

*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.

Desirable criteria

1. Research or clinical experience in dementia care
2. Expertise in coordinating research networks
3. Experience of making submissions to funders for research grants
4. Utilising online platforms and social media to promote and engage communities and the public in research, and share and promote resources and outputs
5. Publications, including blogs, reports, web content, academic papers

Downloading a copy of our Job Description

Full details of the role and the skills, knowledge and experience required can be found in the Job Description document, provided at the bottom of the next page after you click “Apply Now”. This document will provide information of what criteria will be assessed at each stage of the recruitment process.

Further information

We pride ourselves on being inclusive and welcoming. We embrace diversity and want everyone to feel that they belong and are connected to others in our community.

We are committed to working with our staff and unions on these and other issues, to continue to support our people and to develop a diverse and inclusive culture at King's. We ask all candidates to submit a copy of their CV, and a supporting statement, detailing how they meet the essential criteria listed in the advert. If we receive a strong field of candidates, we may use the desirable criteria to choose our final shortlist, so please include your evidence against these where possible.

To find out how our managers will review your application, please take a look at our ‘ How we Recruit’ pages.

We are able to offer sponsorship for candidates who do not currently possess the right to work in the UK.