Research Associate – Cicely Saunders Institute of Palliative Care, Policy and Rehabilitation at King’s College London

Closing date: 19^th October 2023

Job description

We are really pleased to offer this excellent opportunity to join our growing team in the Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery & Palliative Care as a Research Associate within the NIHR Policy Research Unit for Palliative and End of Life Care. This new Policy Research Unit (PRU) is funded for three years, in the first instance. It will provide policy-makers at the Department of Health and Social Care with timely, relevant, and rapidly-accessible evidence to help them make policy decisions that improve care for patients with advanced illness and their families/carers.

The Policy Research Unit for Palliative and End-of-Life Care is a collaboration led from King’s College London and Hull York Medical School at University of Hull, working in collaboration with the International Observatory on End of Life Care at Lancaster University and partners from other Universities.

The Policy Research Unit will undertake a core programme of policy research, informed by current and future needs of patients and their families/carers. The PRU will also have a Rapid Response facility that delivers timely, high-quality evidence summaries tailored to policy-makers’ needs. The Policy Research Unit will deliver findings directly to users of the research (particularly policy-makers) through a range of outputs including policy briefings, reports and academic papers.

The post holder will report to, and work closely with, the PRU Director Professor Katherine Sleeman. 

You must have a doctoral degree level qualification in a relevant discipline and experience of conducting research in health care environments. Ideally, you will have experience in palliative or end of life care research. Writing skills are valued, and experience of authoring papers for publication, and research protocols is critical. Experience of working collaboratively in large multi-disciplinary research teams, and service users/relatives, clinicians and service providers, would be a definite advantage. We are looking for a self-directed and committed individual with an interest in becoming a key part of our end-of-life care research team.

This post will be offered on a fixed-term contract till December 2026.

This is a full-time post – 100% full time equivalent.

Essential criteria

• PhD with focus on quantitative methods, and a track record of scientific publications.
• Degree in health or social sciences or similar, awarded to a high level (e.g. first or 2:1).
• Experience in quantitative data analysis, including routine data, management of large datasets and data linkage, and use of statistical software (such as Stata, R or equivalent).
• Excellent written and oral communication skills. Able to produce high quality reports and academic papers, demonstrating attention to detail and accuracy.
• Highly organized, 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.
• Demonstrates a commitment to promoting equality, diversity and inclusivity.

Desirable criteria

• Experience in policy research and/or policy engagement.
• An understanding of issues relating to palliative/end-of-life care.
• MSc in a relevant subject (e.g. Public Health, Epidemiology, Statistics). 

This post is subject to Disclosure and Barring Service clearance.