King's College London

About us

Applications are invited for a 3 year Post-Doctoral Research Associate position to work on the Wellcome-funded SHARE project (Environmentally Sustainable Health Research) at the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, King’s College London. The SHARE project is a large multi-national project applying a critical, but constructive, lens to the tools developed to encourage and enable more environmentally sustainable health research.  The project is being jointly led by Dr Gabrielle Samuel (King’s College London) and Dr Federica Lucivero (University of Oxford), with a research team in India, Kenya, Ghana and Brazil.

About the role

The successful applicant will be working with Dr Gabrielle Samuel to ensure the timely completion of key deliverables on the SHARE project.

The successful applicant will have a number of roles. First and foremost, they will be responsible for the UK element of the SHARE project, which involves conducting, analysing and publishing the findings of interviews with UK health researchers about their experiences of using tools designed to reduce the environmental harms associated with health research. The role also includes leading a collaboration with other members of the globally distributed research team who will be conducting similar interviews, to comparatively analyse empirical research outputs. Collaborating with public engagement specialists, health researchers, tool developers and the wider research team, these insights will be used to develop practical resources for the research community.  This will involve the successful applicant co-conducting workshops, analysing findings, and writing publications. Finally, responsibilities will involve contributing to the community building strand of the project, including supporting the generation of webinars on topics of interest to the community, and the making of video case studies, demonstrating best practice in sustainable health research. The role holder will also be expected to manage administration aspects of the SHARE project.

The successful applicant must be able to work independently, and have experience with both working in a leadership position, as well as working collaboratively within a diverse broader research team. The applicant must be flexible to working across different time zones.

The project will be based within the Department of Global Health & Social Medicine, which is an interdisciplinary community whose internationally-recognised expertise, consultancy work and contributions to policy development are utilised by a myriad of organisations and networks. It is ranked within the top 10 sociology departments in the UK.

For more details on the project, or questions about the application, please contact gabrielle.samuel@kcl.ac.uk

This is a full-time post, and you will be offered​ a fixed term​ contract until 30th April 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 qualified in relevant subject area [sociology, bioethics, anthropology or similar]
2. Skills in qualitative research methods, including conducting and analysing qualitative data, the use of NVivo
3. Proven track record of publishing in peer reviewed journals
4. Experience of applying theoretical/conceptual analysis (sociological, ethical, anthropological) to empirical data 
5. Knowledge of the UK’s (health) research ecosystem, including clinical trials, wet labs, dry labs  
6. Knowledge of and familiarity with health research ethics, environmental ethics and sustainability literature
7. Both proven collaborative working skills, as well as leadership/management experience
8. Organisational and administrative skills 

Desirable criteria

1. Knowledge and experience of sustainability frameworks in health research – guidelines, accreditation systems etc.  
2. Skills and experience in using quantitative technical tools to assess sustainability concerns – for example carbon calculators for ICT systems.  

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.

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

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.