Research Associate in Addictions

Location: Denmark Hill Campus

Contact details: Professor Sir John Strang. john.strang@kcl.ac.uk

Job description

This is one of several researcher posts which will be or are currently being advertised by the Addictions PRU across King's College London, University of Sheffield and University of Glasgow. You should apply to all posts that interest you as we cannot transfer applications between roles.  

We would like to appoint a Post-doctoral Researcher to play a key role within a new Addictions Policy Research Unit (PRU). The Addictions PRU has recently been commissioned by the Department of Health and Social Care for England, funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research, and starts in January 2024 for an initial 5-year period.  

 The PRU is a collaboration involving 10 UK universities led from the Addictions Department at King’s College London (KCL), the University of Sheffield’s Alcohol Research Group and the University of Glasgow’s Gambling Glasgow Research Centre. Its aim is to inform policymaking relating to alcohol, tobacco and nicotine, other drugs, and gambling. Research conducted within the PRU will draw on a range of quantitative and qualitative research methods, and will incorporate different disciplinary perspectives including public health, epidemiology, psychology, health economics, operational research and psychiatry. The PRU will particularly focus on research that relates to public policy and practice and, especially, research that can play an important role in guiding future policymaking. 

We are looking to appoint a Post-doctoral Research focusing on illicit and non-medical use of drugs research. The person appointed will be based in the Addictions Department at King’s College London (KCL) and will report to Professor Sir John Strang (‘drugs’ lead for the PRU), through whom there will be accountability to the PRU’s management team. The appointee will also work with Dr Tom Freeman (deputy PPIE lead, and based at the University of Bath), with specific working responsibilities for individual studies likely influenced by specific areas of expertise (e.g. John Strang with strength on opiates and harm reduction and public policy; Tom Freeman with strength on cannabis and public health and policy). You will be part of a team of pre- and post-doctoral researchers, collaborating with colleagues across the PRU working in various universities, clinical groups and service providers, commissioners and policymakers across the UK. 

You will have a good understanding of addictive behaviours, of public policy and practice at national as well as at local level, and of sources of research which can inform and guide the process of formation of public policy. You will also have established research skills relevant to this work, and a mature understanding of how the value of specific research outputs can be assessed and also how they can be valuably influential to the policymaking process. You should be a clear and balanced communicator and committed to the need to bring science to the fore in the considerations which need to be incorporated into key decision-making at the level of local and national policy. The successful appointee will be expected to be reliable and efficient and also to have good inter-personal as well as organisational skills.

This post will be offered on a full-time, fixed term contract for 2 years.

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