Postdoctoral Research Associate

About us 

The Department of Geography at King’s College London invites applications for a full-time (1.0 FTE) position as Postdoctoral Research Associate (PDRA). The post is for 1.5-years (18 months) and based at KCL’s Strand Campus in central London, working on the Plumbing Poverty research team of Professor Katie Meehan.  

About the role 

This Postdoctoral Research Associate (PDRA) role is a full-time, fixed-term research position within the Plumbing Poverty project, an interdisciplinary study examining insecure water access, affordability, debt, and service disconnections across cities in Europe and the United States. The primary purpose of the role is to co-lead and manage data analysis across multiple international case studies, advancing both theoretical and policy-relevant understandings of water poverty at the household level. The postholder will work with complex qualitative and quantitative datasets to advance the theoretical and applied environmental justice aims of the Plumbing Poverty project.

The PDRA will undertake the development and implementation of cross-cultural, mixed-methods analytical approaches across the project’s case studies. This includes comparative (metatheme) analysis of cross-cultural ethnographic and qualitative data generated by the project’s case studies, and quantitative analysis and management of household water insecurity survey data. A key component of the role is the co-leadership of a household water insecurity survey in a European city (likely Barcelona), which involves overseeing fieldwork logistics, training and supervising enumerators, and ensuring high standards of data quality and management.

The postholder will also contribute significantly to the production and dissemination of research outputs, including peer-reviewed journal articles, policy briefs, and reports. They will coordinate and collaborate with a network of international researchers and partners, and play an active role in translating research findings for academic, policy, and public audiences. In addition, the PDRA will support the organisation of project-related events and contribute to the development of a European research network on household water insecurity.

The PDRA will report directly to Professor Katie Meehan, Principal Investigator of the Plumbing Poverty project, and will work closely with other members of the project team and its wider network of collaborators. While the role does not involve formal line management responsibilities, the postholder will be responsible for supervising and training research assistants, managing coding teams, and overseeing survey enumerators in the field. They will also take responsibility for coordinating collaborative research activities, ensuring data quality and consistency across the project, and contributing to overall project management and delivery.

This is a full-time post (37.5 hours per week) offered on a fixed-term, 18-month contract from the start date. The start date is flexible within September 2026 or early October, with 5 October 2026 as the latest possible start date.

Research staff at King’s are entitled to at least 10 days per year (pro-rata) for professional development. This entitlement, from the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers, applies to Postdocs, Research Assistants, Research and Teaching Technicians, Teaching Fellows and AEP equivalent up to and including grade 7. Visit the Centre for Research Staff Development for more informa

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