King's College London

About us:

This is an exciting opportunity to join the Health Psychology Section, part of the School of Mental Health & Psychological Sciences at King’s College London based at Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience (IoPPN). The IoPPN promotes cutting-edge research and translation into practice, addressing a wide range of mental health challenges.

The Health Psychology Section is home to pioneering research in health behaviours, patient outcomes, and interventions to improve mental and physical health. The successful candidate will have the opportunity to work alongside leading academics and researchers in the field, contributing to impactful studies aimed at enhancing the psychological care of patients across different health settings.

About the role:

We are looking to appoint a Research Assistant to join the Health Psychology Group within the Department of Psychology at King’s College London.

The successful candidate will join Dr Lauren Heathcote’s team, situated in the Health Psychology Section within Guy’s Hospital. The Heathcote Lab conducts innovative research aimed at understanding mind-body mechanisms of mental and physical health, including developing and testing mind-body interventions for cancer survivors.

The successful candidate will primarily support a Randomised Controlled Trial of ADIE (‘Aligning Dimensions of Interoceptive Experience’) Therapy, which aims to reduce anxiety in breast cancer survivors. ADIE Therapy involves combining biofeedback-based training using heartbeat-sensing equipment with psychological support to re-establish a healthy mind-body connection and reduce anxiety after breast cancer. The RA will primarily support the following activities:

• Patient recruitment for the clinical trial via breast cancer clinics, charities, and community settings. This will include finding and establishing new recruitment pathways.
• Delivering ADIE Therapy to breast cancer survivors. This will include both handling the heartbeat-sensing equipment and providing psychological support to help breast cancer survivors re-establish an adaptive mind-body connection.
• Data collection, data management, and secure data storage for questionnaire, psychophysiology, and biomarker data.
• Accompanying patients to undergo fMRI brain imaging scans before and after ADIE Therapy (these will be done at the KCL Denmark Hill campus). (Note: the MRI scans will be overseen by a Postdoc specialising in neuroimaging and so the RA does not need familiarity with neuroimaging methods).
• Trial-related paperwork including NHS and KCL ethics submissions and amendments, tracking and reporting safety and adverse events to the PI, sponsor, and regulators.
• Data cleaning and analysis, presentation of findings at scientific conferences, and write-up of papers for publication (these activities will be in year 3 of the position, dependent upon contract extension).
• Supporting public engagement and science communication activities to share the importance of mental health care for cancer survivors and the role of mind-body science.

This role also offers the opportunity to engage in co-design activities with lived experience partners and charities.

The ADIE trial is funded through a large Wellcome Mental Health Award, ‘When your body betrays you: interoceptive mechanisms of anxiety after cancer’. This is a large-scale collaborative research programme between KCL, UCL, Stanford University, and the National Cancer Institute (NIH). As such, the successful candidate will be part of multidisciplinary team that includes world experts in psychology, clinical neuroscience, statistics, patient-clinician communication, and cancer survivorship care.

The position will be full time (100% FTE) and appointed for a fixed duration of 2 years, with the possibility of extension up to 3 years for the full duration of the trial.

The role will involve working 35 hours per week, and this may include working out of office hours and weekends, as needed, to support patient therapy delivery and data collection on the project. This position will require in-person work at least four days per week, but this will be up to five days per week during busy testing periods.

Interviews are scheduled to take place in August 2025. The successful applicant will be expected to start the position in September or October 2025.

The time commitment for this position is a minimum of 2 years, and so this role is not appropriate for individuals planning to apply for clinical doctorate programs that start in 2026.

*We have the right to close the advert earlier than advertised if we receive a sufficient number of applications.

About you:

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

Essential criteria

1. Degree in Psychology, Neuroscience, or related degree.
2. Masters Degree in Psychology, Health Psychology, Clinical Psychology, Clinical Neuroscience, or a related degree.
3. Excellent interpersonal communication and team-working skills. 
4. Motivated and driven to improve the lives of people diagnosed with cancer.
5. Excellent organisational and project management skills.
6. Self-motivated, proactive and takes initiative to problem-solve.

Desirable criteria

1. Experience of conducting research within an NHS setting, particularly patient recruitment.
2. Experience working with vulnerable populations or families impacted by cancer.
3. Experience with NHS ethics approvals.
4. Experience with Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) or co-design.
5. Experience with psychophysiology or neuroimaging methods. 
6. Experience with statistical packages including SPSS, R, and/or MATLAB.

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 page.This document will provide information of what criteria will be assessed at each stage of the recruitment process.

Further information:

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.