Research Associate - ICICLE

About the role

This is an outstanding development opportunity for a talented individual 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).

The post holder will be responsible for 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 and conduct semi-structured qualitative interviews with children with life-limiting conditions and their parents and health, social care and education professionals; undertake qualitative data analysis; facilitate co-production workshops; 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 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 full time post (35 hours per week), and you will be offered a fixed term contract until 30.11.2029.

King’s considers the professional and personal development of our staff a priority and we offer an inspiring range of opportunities for training and career progression. Our Organisational Development team provide in-house and bespoke learning.

About you

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

Essential criteria

• First Degree in relevant health related discipline 
• PhD qualified in relevant subject area i.e. including but not restricted to health services research, palliative care, child health, psychology*
• Qualitative research experience, including skills to undertake evidence synthesis, qualitative interviews and data analysis.
• Ability to use initiative and work independently, with support from the wider team, and willingness to travel, if necessary, for interviews, conferences, and so on.
• Experience of contributing to formal processes of study development, such as writing the protocol, developing interview materials, applying for ethical approval (or amendments) and writing up reports and academic papers.
• Excellent presentation and communication skills (written & verbal)
• Being self-motivated and willing to work independently, as well as part of a larger interdisciplinary team
• Committed to equality, diversity and inclusion, actively addressing areas of potential bias         

*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.

Desirable criteria

• Previous experience of working with parents and young people with life-limiting conditions
• Engaging in multidisciplinary research projects 
• Strong publication record
• Previous experience of intervention development

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