King's College London

About Us

​​King’s College London is a leading University with nine Faculties. As part of King’s Health Partners, we have an excellent environment for health and social care interaction and a strong focus on mentoring and career development. Through a strong partnership, King’s College London working together with the charity Cicely Saunders International, created the Cicely Saunders Institute for Palliative Care, Policy & Rehabilitation, the premier Institute for Palliative Care, bringing together clinical, research and education teams to pioneer ways to improve treatment and care for people and their families facing serious and life-threatening disease.

​Our applied clinical and health multidisciplinary research transforms therapies and services, the health and care experiences and outcomes for patients and those important to them, wherever they are cared for. King’s produces more highly cited research outputs (top 1% citations) on palliative care than any other centre internationally (SciVal) and is second in the world on the same metric for nursing and midwifery.  The 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF2021) placed King’s applied and allied health research 1st for: overall proportion of research rated 4* (world-leading, the best mark possible), research papers rated 4*, impact rated 4*, environment rated 4*(joint) with over 95% of our research overall was rated as world-leading or internationally excellent.  King’s is no 1 in the world QS rankings for nursing.

​​King’s is the largest provider of health care education in Europe. Our award-winning education programmes span pre-registration programmes and multidisciplinary post-graduate taught and research programmes, with teams in the Cicely Saunders Institute teaching medical, nursing and physiotherapy students, and running two multiprofessional MSc programmes.  We welcome colleagues with fresh ideas who are motivated to help shape the future of palliative care.

​We are committed to staff development and offer opportunities to identify and access appropriate training and professional growth.

About the role

Are you passionate about improving care for people living with serious illness? We have an exciting opportunity to join the palliative care research group at the renowned Cicely Saunders Institute as a Research and Engagement Assistant.

In this role, you will contribute to high-quality applied research in palliative, health, and social care, helping to enhance therapies, outcome measurement, and support for patients and families. Working closely with King’s College London, Cicely Saunders International, and other partners, you will play a key part in maximising the reach, visibility, and impact of collaborative projects.

We are looking for a highly motivated, creative, and organised individual who enjoys working across multiple projects. You should be confident using digital tools and able to adapt your communication style for different audiences. Experience in applied research delivery, and its engagement, or communications is desirable, and we particularly welcome applications from candidates with diverse backgrounds and experiences.

You will play a central role in ensuring that the work reaches and engages the widest possible audience. This includes preparing agendas, minutes, correspondence, newsletters, reports, and presentations; maintaining Researchfish, SARD, CVs and other funder records; managing website, LinkedIn, and digital content; and supporting meetings, events, and education workshops. You will help ensure research findings and project outputs reach health and care professionals, service organisations, training networks, NHS organisations, policy-makers, patients, and families. This includes promoting Cicely Saunders International’s Action Plan for Better Palliative Care: You Matter Because You Are You. You may also assist with the supervision of student projects relevant to your expertise.

You contribute to scoping, systematic and narrative reviews and intelligence gathering; analysing and managing quantitative and qualitative data; liaising with national and international teams; and assisting with ethics applications, data collection, reporting, and scientific and other publications. You will also help identify and apply for new funding, including fellowships and project grants, to sustain and grow the research and education portfolio.

Why join us? This is an excellent opportunity to develop your research and engagement skills within a leading international palliative care environment. You will work alongside experts committed to improving care and making a real difference to people’s lives.

Location: Hybrid (minimum 2 days per week on campus at the Cicely Saunders Institute, Denmark Hill) Faculty: Nursing, Midwifery & Palliative Care, King’s College London

This is a full time (35 hours per week) role and you will be offered a 2-year fixed term contract.

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.

Location: Hybrid – minimum of 2 days per week on campus (Cicely Saunders Institute)

About You

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

Essential criteria

1. Bachelor’s degree in health, social sciences, or a related discipline relevant to the role
2. Demonstrated commitment to palliative care and improving outcomes for people affected by serious or complex illness
3. Experience in a range of research approaches and techniques relevant to palliative care or complex health conditions (e.g., literature reviews, surveys, interviews, data analysis)
4. Highly motivated, proactive, and creative, with the ability to work independently, use initiative, and collaborate effectively within multidisciplinary teams
5. Excellent written, oral, and digital communication skills, with the ability to present information clearly to different audiences
6. Well organised, able to prioritise and manage multiple tasks, and work accurately with strong attention to detail and numeracy
7. Competence with IT and digital tools, including MS Office, and virtual communication platforms
8. Commitment to high standards of research quality, integrity, and accuracy in all aspects of work

Desirable criteria

1. Experience of and skills in contributing to research or similar reports, publications, or grant applications
2. Experience of and honed skills in engagement, dissemination, or digital communications for research or project outputs
3. Knowledge of or experience in palliative care services or applied health research
4. Experience of and honed skills in liaising with external organisations, stakeholders, or managing project-related administrative tasks
5. Experience of and skills in conducting systematic or scoping or rapid reviews or analysing qualitative or quantitative information

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

At King’s, we believe that the diversity of our community and a culture that is welcoming, open, inclusive and collaborative, are great strengths of the university.

The Equality Act of 2010 protects the rights of our students and staff and provides a framework to fulfil our duties to eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and in addition, to advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between those who share a protected characteristic and those who do not. At times, this will include balancing rights and beliefs that can feel in tension.

We are committed to free speech and to academic freedom, believing that our foundational purpose as a university, is to create spaces where a wide range of ideas, including ideas that are controversial, can be discussed and debated, and where members of our community can express lawful views without fear of intimidation, harassment or discrimination.

When engaging in the robust exchange of ideas, we ask that our community is mindful of our Dignity at King’s guidance.

We ask all candidates to submit a copy of their CV, and a supporting statement, detailing their reasons for applying and how they meet the essential criteria listed in the person specification section of the job description. 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.

We reserve the right to close adverts early due to the volume of applications we receive. While the closing date may change, all adverts will close at 23:59 to allow sufficient time for applications to be submitted on that day.

We encourage you to apply at the earliest opportunity to avoid disappointment as once we have closed a vacancy you will be unable to submit your application.

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

Interviews will take place on the 20th March.

This post is subject to Disclosure and Barring Service clearances.