Research Assistant at the Department of Health Services & Population Research at King’s College London

Location: Strand Campus

Contact details: Dr. Gemma Knowles / Dr. Kristi Sawyer. gemma.knowles@kcl.ac.uk / kristi.m.sawyer@kcl.ac.uk

Job description

We are seeking an enthusiastic and motivated research assistant to join our team at the ESRC Centre for Society and Mental Health (CSMH;  www.kcl.ac.uk/csmh) and the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN), King’s College London. This is a part-time (0.4 FTE) fixed term post until 9th Sept 2024.

The postholder will support the delivery of an exciting new project that aims to brings together young people, teachers, parents, community organisations, and social and biological scientists to: (1) generate novel ideas about the causes of sex differences in mental health in early adolescence, and (2) co-design a new study capable of testing these ideas.

The successful applicant will primarily be responsible for: (a) organising, preparing, and delivering a series of coproduction workshops involving people from a range of backgrounds, including young people, (b) conducting a scoping review of existing evidence and summarising this evidence for the coproduction team, (c) supporting the project leads to create a blueprint for a new interdisciplinary study, with a view to developing a larger programme of research, and (d) supporting young people to create project outputs.

The postholder will join a friendly and supportive interdisciplinary team at CSMH and will work closely with the project leads, Dr Gemma Knowles (Lecturer in Epidemiology and Youth Mental Health; social science) and Dr Kristi Sawyer (Research Associate; biological science), to deliver the project. They will be supported and encouraged to join CSMH’s Early Career Researcher Network, which offers a wide range of training, development, and networking opportunities.

The successful applicant will have exceptional interpersonal and communication skills, a talent for engaging and building relationships with diverse groups of people (particularly young people), and the ability to create spaces for open sharing of ideas and experiences, including on sensitive topics. They will be able to review and summarise evidence from a range of sources (e.g., qualitative research, quantitative research, non-academic reports, etc.) and communicate scientific concepts and methods to people with all levels of understanding. They will be proactive, creative, organised, motivated, and be able to manage deadlines. Good knowledge of issues around data protection, research ethics, and safeguarding is highly desirable.

Please note, given the nature of the project, remote working will often not be possible; coproduction workshops and meetings will mostly be in-person in London. Coproduction sessions may take place during evenings and weekends to accommodate young people, parents, and teachers, so some out-of-hours working may be required, but this will be infrequent (e.g., 2-3 times during the project).

This post will be offered on a part-time (40%FTE) fixed term contract until 9th September 2024.