King's College London

About Us

King’s British Heart Foundation (BHF) Centre of Research Excellence

The King’s British Heart Foundation (BHF) Centre of Research Excellence  is a major hub for interdisciplinary cardiovascular research, innovation, and training at King’s College London. Established in 2008 and now in its fourth round of BHF funding, the Centre brings together a vibrant community of biomedical scientists, clinicians, engineers, physical scientists, and data experts who share a mission to transform the lives of people living with heart failure.

Heart failure affects more than half a million people in the UK, and the Centre tackles this challenge through four ambitious research themes:

• Discovering new therapies for human heart failure
• Using advanced imaging and experimental medicine to understand disease mechanisms and predict therapeutic success
• Unravelling the impact of ageing on heart failure, particularly in HFpEF
• Pioneering precision cardiovascular medicine to deliver personalised care for patients of all ages, sexes, and ethnicities

The BHF Centre is hosted by the School of Cardiovascular & Metabolic Medicine & Sciences (SCMMS) but spans the Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine and connects directly with four major specialist cardiovascular hospitals through King’s Health Partners. This unique integration accelerates translation from discovery to clinical impact. The Centre also plays a vital role in developing the next generation of cardiovascular researchers through strong mentoring programmes, cutting-edge facilities, and a collaborative, inclusive, impact‑driven research culture.

School of Cardiovascular & Metabolic Medicine & Sciences (SCMMS)

The  School of Cardiovascular & Metabolic Medicine & Sciences (SCMMS) provides an outstanding multidisciplinary environment that underpins the BHF Centre’s research strengths. SCMMS hosts more than 65 academic groups and around 400 staff and 110 PhD students, spanning the Guy’s, St Thomas’ and Denmark Hill campuses. Its research is structured across major themes in cardiac, vascular, cardiometabolic, and diabetes & obesity science, supported by cross‑cutting basic and clinical science programmes.

About The Role

The Career Establishment Fellowships are prestigious posts funded by the King’s College London British Heart Foundation Centre of Research Excellence. They are designed to support outstanding early-career scientists (typically 3–5 years post-doctoral experience) in establishing independent research careers in cardiovascular science, initially through a successful application for an external personal Fellowship.

Each Fellowship offers a competitive salary and research expenses (including consumables, travel, and technical costs). Successful candidates will receive support to apply for external fellowships, with the expectation that they will submit an application for an intermediate-level fellowship (e.g., BHF, UKRI, Wellcome Trust) within their first year. If the application is successful, fellows will be supported in transitioning to a tenure-track academic position at King’s College London.

Fellows will benefit from King’s world-class bench-to-bedside ecosystem, with access to outstanding facilities such as advanced imaging platforms (e.g., whole-body PET, low field and high field MRI), cutting-edge 'omics technologies, a High Throughput Screening facility, AAV manufacturing capabilities, and high-performance computing resources.

The ideal candidate will have a track record of high-impact first or lead-author publications, demonstrable potential for independent research leadership, and a well-defined cardiovascular research focus that complements and enhances King’s internationally leading work.

Fellows are expected to establish an independent research programme rather than continue within their current group. We are particularly interested in candidates whose work focuses on the biology of cardiac ageing(e.g. epigenetic mechanisms), genetics of cardiomyopathy, or novel biological questions in cardiovascular science that can be addressed using imaging-derived and multi-omics data.

This is a full-time post (35 hours per week), and you will be offered a fixed-term contract for 18 to 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. PhD awarded in relevant subject area with 3-5 years postdoctoral experience
2. Proven ability to independently write scientific papers
3. Excellent presentation, communication and team working skills, with the ability to collaborate effectively across disciplines.
4. Significant experience in research techniques relevant to the Fellowship, e.g. in vivo techniques, gene regulation and epigenetics, scRNA seq, -omics approaches, iPSC-based disease modelling, mechanobiology, advanced imaging and functional screening, bioinformatics, AI and multimodal data integration.
5. Track record of first or lead author papers in high quality peer reviewed journals
6. Ability to think independently, develop own research, and build and maintain an international professional network.
7. Ability to manage time effectively, meet deadlines, and adapt to changing priorities.
8. Commitment to ongoing professional development, including leadership and grant writing

Desirable criteria

1. Experience in securing external research funding or contributing to successful grant applications.
2. Experience of obtaining independent research funding
3. Engagement in public outreach, science communication, or patient involvement activities.
4. Experience in lecturing and tutoring or delivering teaching to undergraduate or postgraduate students.
5. Experience of successfully supervising or co-supervising PhD students

Your application must include the following information:

• Applicant statement (500 words). This should give an indication of fellowship applications planned or pending.
• Outline of proposed research programme (2000 words)

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 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.

To find out how our managers will review your application, please take a look at our ‘ How we Recruit’ pages. Interviews are due to be held in April 2026.

This post is subject to Occupational Health clearances.