King's College London

About us:

The IoPPN is a Faculty of King's College London and the largest academic community in Europe devoted to the study and prevention of mental illness and brain disease. http://www.kcl.ac.uk/ioppn/index.aspx

The role is located within the Department of Psychology. Since the Department of Psychology was founded in 1950, it has carried on a distinguished programme of research, teaching and clinical practice, with a long-standing link with the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. In 2004, the psychology sections of Guy’s, King’s and St Thomas’ School of Medicine merged with the Department, creating one of the world’s largest groupings of clinical and health psychologists. Today, Psychology is one of the largest departments in the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN).

​At King’s we are deeply committed to embedding good culture, equality and diversity practice into all of our activities so that the university is an inclusive, welcoming and inspiring place to work and study.

The work is commissioned by the Board of the Clearing House for Postgraduate Courses in Clinical Psychology, a non-profit educational charity. 

About the role:

This is an exciting opportunity for a postgraduate in psychology or a related field such as statistics to develop their research skills as part of a team under Prof. Claire Lomax and will be based in the Department of Psychology at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN), one of the most esteemed clinical research centres worldwide. You will contribute to an exciting new research project commissioned by the Board of the Clearing House for Postgraduate Courses in Clinical Psychology, whose strategy includes promoting the profession of clinical psychology, and your work will be broadly encompassed within this remit.

In this role as Research Assistant you will join a project exploring the areas of workforce evaluation, planning and strategy, including pathways into the profession of clinical psychology This research will be used to support NHS commissioners and the training community in the development of a long-term workforce strategy with respect to clinical psychology, and support applicants to entry into clinical psychology training programmes. The work will be undertaken through the evaluation of existing data held by the Clearing House, collection of new data from recent clinical psychology graduates and from training programmes. There will be a Steering Group which will lead the strategy of this work, constituted of senior stakeholders to discuss and shape research questions and then to disseminate work and findings.

Working in close collaboration with other researchers involved in this project, you will organise research activities, including cleaning and organising data sets ready for analysis; plan data collection methods for DClinPsy programmes and graduates; and disseminate information and contribute to outputs. You will engage in all aspects of the project, including developing engagement with prequalification groups, the Group of Trainers in Clinical Psychology community, graduates of training programmes and NHS commissioners. Consultation and communication with all of these groups would be at the very centre of this work. You will be managed on a day-to-day basis by a research clinical psychologist alongside an academic team.

This is a full-time post (35 hours per week) and you will be offered a fixed-term contract for 24 months.

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 information.

About you:

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

Essential criteria

1. 2:1 or above at degree level in psychology or a related topic
2. Experience of writing scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals or dissemination at conference
3. Skills and experience in project management
4. Experience of working with large data sets
5. Excellent attention to detail in communication, data management and reporting results.
6. Strong interpersonal skills, evidence of experience in consultation, communication and engagement with stakeholder groups.

Desirable criteria

1. Hold a relevant master’s degree or be close to completion with expectation of Merit or above
2. Experience of collaborative research, supporting a wider team to achieve their goals
3. Experience of developing communication strategy

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.