King's College London

About Us

Department of Nutritional Sciences

This position is based within the Department of Nutritional Sciences at King's College London and will work closely with colleagues in the Department of Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology. Both departments are part of the School of Life Course and Population Sciences within the Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine. They benefit from strong collaborative partnerships at KCL, and nationally and internationally, enhancing our research impact and reach. The Department of Nutritional Sciences explores the relationship between diet, health and disease from molecules to populations. Based at King’s Waterloo Campus, the Department of Nutritional Sciences combines over 60 basic and applied scientists, dietitians, nutritionists, doctors and public health experts. Our mission is to find new ways to improve health and to prevent and treat nutrition-related disease.

We began in 1953 as the first university department of nutrition in Europe and have been at the forefront of research in nutrition science and dietetics ever since.

More information:

https://www.kcl.ac.uk/slcps/our-departments/department-of-nutritional-sciences 

  https://www.kcl.ac.uk/slcps/our-departments/department-of-twin-research-genetic-epidemiology

About the role

The Dietitian Research Assistant will be primarily responsible for the planning, implementation and delivery of dietary advice for a randomised controlled trial (PROSPECT TwinsUK RCT).  They will also be responsible for the delivery of dietary advice to study participants through 1 to 1 consultations, group sessions and on-line resources. They will oversee dietary assessment and diet data collection, and ensure all data are carefully and promptly collated and entered into relevant databases throughout the study; and that records are properly kept and audited. They will liaise with the academic collaborators within KCL and internationally. They will also play a role in evaluating and interpreting the diet data and writing manuscripts for journal submission.

The PROSPECT TwinsUK RCT is part of high-profile research programme (PROSPECT) funded by Cancer Grand Challenges; https://www.cancergrandchallenges.org/prospect. PROSPECT is an international research programme to investigate the global rise in colorectal cancers in younger adults. The international PROSPECT team aims to understand the underlying causes and mechanisms driving the development of early onset colorectal cancers and to develop and test innovative strategies to help prevent the disease in future generations. The PROSPECT TwinsUK RCT will investigate the effect of dietary change on risk of developing early onset colorectal cancer in a dietary intervention study in the TwinsUK cohort (https://twinsuk.ac.uk/). The postholder will be responsible for the development and delivery of the dietary intervention component.

The postholder will be based at the Department of Nutritional Sciences and will work closely with the PROSPECT team in the Department of Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology at King’s College London.

This post provides an exciting opportunity to develop expertise in dietary intervention studies. It would suit a candidate wishing to develop a career in nutrition research and novel approaches to tackle population disease prevention with a focus on nutrition and lifestyle.

Applications are welcome from candidates with a BSc or MSc in dietetics.

This is a full-time post (35 hours per week), and you will be offered a fixed term contract until 30 April 2026.

About You

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

Essential criteria

1. BSc or MSc in dietetics
2. Experience in delivery of dietary advice through 1 to 1 consultations or group-based advice
3. Understanding of dietary human intervention studies; operational understanding of development and delivery of dietary advice for dietary interventions, familiarity with ethical standards and regulatory requirements in research
4. Excellent verbal and written communication skills to effectively communicate dietary strategies for online and in-person advice
5. Ability to work to own initiatives while working effectively as part of a multidisciplinary team

Desirable criteria

1. Experience in developing dietary strategies for intervention studies

Downloading a copy of our Job Description

Full details of the role and the skills, knowledge and experience required can be found in the Job Description document, provided at the bottom of the next page after you click “Apply Now”. This document will provide information of what criteria will be assessed at each stage of the recruitment process.

Further Information

We pride ourselves on being inclusive and welcoming. We embrace diversity and want everyone to feel that they belong and are connected to others in our community.

We are committed to working with our staff and unions on these and other issues, to continue to support our people and to develop a diverse and inclusive culture at King's.

We ask all candidates to submit a copy of their CV, and a supporting statement, detailing how they meet the essential criteria listed in the advert. If we receive a strong field of candidates, we may use the desirable criteria to choose our final shortlist, so please include your evidence against these where possible.

To find out how our managers will review your application, please take a look at our ‘How we Recruit’ pages.

This post is subject to Disclosure and Barring Service clearances.