King's College London

About Us

In April 2024, the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN), King’s College London led the establishment of a national disseminated population mental health consortium, as part of a UKRI funded population health improvement initiative (Population Health Improvement UK- PHIUK). This post will be situated in the Department of Psychological Medicine, at IoPPN (Denmark Hill campus), London (KCL) and will work across this partnership.  

About the role

This is an exciting opportunity for a postdoctoral researcher, with a strong background in quantitative methods and mental health research, to develop a programme of work examining upstream social determinants on mental health, with a focus on exploring the consequences of employment and welfare policies and reforms on mental health.

You will work across linked datasets (Department for Work and Pensions, mental health records, cohorts) and will be encouraged to develop high quality statistical methods to enhance causal inferences relating to the association of economic policy/ benefit changes with mental health outcomes. You will be encouraged to consider the impact of changes on wider inequities, eg. relating to race/ ethnicity and other protected characteristics, and where possible link to the consortium’s three challenge areas (children and young people, prevention of self-harm and suicide and multiple long-term conditions).

You will work closely with the Co-Director of the consortium (Prof Das-Munshi) and Dr Sharon Stevelink (Co-lead for the ‘Data, linkages and causal inference’ platform) and will work closely with the ‘Economic Wellbeing Programme’, convened by Thrive-LDN, and with people with lived experience, to develop the programme of work.

Experience across a range of data sources (eg. CPRD, BHF COVID Consortium data, UK birth cohorts, nationally representative surveys) and linked data would be an advantage, as would experience in applying quasi-experimental methodologies (eg. propensity score matching, difference in difference design, interrupted time series analyses etc.) to enhance causal inferences from observational data.

The population mental health consortium will be establishing a training programme and the postholder will be expected to work with this platform to share learning across the wider membership and inform the development of training materials.  

The postholder will be supported to develop their academic career, including through fellowship applications and other grant applications to external research funders (led by the applicant or others in the team), and will be encouraged to explore collaborations with others. The postholder will receive research and wider professional skills development through local Early Career Researcher Networks and the College’s wider training programme.

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

About You

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

Essential criteria

1. PhD in a relevant discipline (statistics, epidemiology, health economics etc.) *
2. Evidence of previous research in mental health
3. Experience of working with large-scale, longitudinal data (eg. health records, admin data)
4. Proficiency in statistical analyses and use of relevant statistical packages (Stata, R, MPLUS etc.)
5. Excellent project management, time management and communication and presentation skills
6. Good knowledge of population mental health and health inequalities
7. Ability to work collaboratively with non-academic partners (public health, local government) and people with lived experience
8. Applicant needs to be able to be based on location (Denmark Hill campus, IoPPN) for at least 3 days a week

*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. Track record of publications in peer reviewed scientific journals
2. Experience of working across policy/ public health/ voluntary sectors and/ or people with lived experience
3. Experience of working with cohort data
4. Experience of undertaking analyses based on data linkages
5. Experience of supervising researchers and students and/ or delivering seminars, presentations or training to diverse audiences

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.

Interviews are due to be held on 5th December, 6th December or 13th December.

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

This post is subject to Disclosure and Barring Service and Occupational Health clearances.

Please note, we may close this advert early if we receive a large number of applications.