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.

For the last six years, King’s has been number 2 in the world and number 1 in Europe for Nursing (QS world rankings). King’s produces more highly cited research outputs (top 1% citations) on palliative care than any other centre internationally (SciVal), and is second in the world on the same metric for nursing and midwifery. King’s is the largest provider of health care education in Europe.

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 NMPC education programmes span pre-registration nursing and midwifery, and multidisciplinary post-graduate taught and research programmes.

We are committed to staff development, and offer opportunities to identify and access appropriate training and professional growth.

About the role

This is an outstanding development opportunity for a talented and experienced researcher who wishes to advance excellent and innovative research on the care and support of children and young people with life limiting conditions and their families.

This research post will be working with our Chair of Palliative Care and Child Health, Lorna Fraser on an NIHR funded programme - Improving Care for children with life-limiting Conditions: developing, adapting, impLementing and Evaluating interventions (ICICLE). You will also have the opportunity to be a senior member of the CHILDS research group.

The post holder will be responsible for overseeing the protocol development, study setup activities (i.e. obtaining ethical approval) and conducting data collection, and evaluation across several studies within this programme. They will conduct the following tasks:  lead PPI activities; recruit for studies; undertake qualitative data analysis; facilitate co-production workshops; lead further grant applications; disseminate findings.

Expertise, knowledge, and experience of children with life-limiting conditions, complex medical or palliative care needs are necessary, and qualitative research experience is essential. Enthusiasm in developing/ continuing a career in palliative care or child health research will be beneficial and we are a supportive team that can assist with developing future grants and fellowship applications.

This is a part time post (28 hours per week), and you will be offered a fixed term contract until 30/11/2029.

About You

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

Essential criteria

1. PhD qualified in relevant subject area i.e. including but not restricted to health services research, palliative care, child health, psychology 
2. Significant experience in a range of applied research methodologies including qualitative, systematic reviewing, mixed methods or quantitative skills 
3. Proven successful independent, high-quality research in palliative care and/or child health including evidence of publications of high-quality, peer-reviewed papers 
4. Significant experience in designing, developing and managing research projects   
5. Experience of successful grant application, preferably as principal investigator 
6. Strong interpersonal skills in one to ones and group settings   
7. Excellent presentation and written and verbal communication skills  
8. Committed to equality, diversity and inclusion, actively addressing areas of potential bias 

Desirable criteria

1. Previous experience of working with parents and young people with life-limiting conditions 
2. Ability to lead and manage a research team 
3. Previous supervision of PhD and MSc students 
4. Previous experience of intervention development 

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.

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