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 care interaction and a strong focus on mentoring and career development.

​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), Grade Point Average and Power.  REF2021 rated as world-leading: 100% of our environment, 86% of our impact and 70% of our research overall. Over 95% of our research overall was rated as world-leading or internationally excellent.

​As of 2025, King’s is number 1 in the world for Nursing (QS world rankings). 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. King’s is the largest provider of health care education in Europe.

​The Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery & Palliative Care (NMPC) is based in the heart of central and south London. It includes the Cicely Saunders Institute for Palliative Care, Policy & Rehabilitation, the premier Institute for Palliative Care, bringing together clinical, research and education teams.

​Our applied clinical and health multidisciplinary research transforms therapies, the healthcare experience and outcomes for patients and those important to them, wherever they are cared for. Our award-winning NMPC education programmes span pre-registration nursing and midwifery, and multidisciplinary post-graduate taught and research programmes. 

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

About the role

This is an outstanding development opportunity for a talented individual who wishes to support excellent and innovative research on the care and support of children and young people with life limiting conditions and their families.

This Research Associate post will be working with our Chair of Palliative Care and Child Health, Lorna Fraser on an NIHR funded programme - Improving Care for children with life-limiting Conditions: developing, adapting, impLementing and Evaluating interventions (ICICLE).

For this new NIHR funded research programme we require an experienced Research Associate who will be responsible for management of day-to-day running of the ICICLE programme and delivery of key milestones and objectives. They will make a key contribution to the scientific excellence of the research activities, and coordinate work across studies and with external organisations. Essential to the success of this ICICLE programme will be communication, engagement and collaboration with clinicians, service providers and children and their parents. and the post holder will play a key role in this. The post holder will demonstrate excellent communication skills, attention to detail, and the ability to work alongside a range of colleagues including academic staff, policy makers, health and social care professionals, and children and family carers.  This is an excellent opportunity to build skills in research programme management and work alongside internationally renowned research team at the Cicely Saunders Institute. The post holder will report to, and work closely with Professor Lorna Fraser.

This is a full-time maternity leave cover post, and you will be offered a fixed term contract for 12 months or until the substantive postholder returns.

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 (Denmark Hill)

About You

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

Essential criteria

1. First Degree in relevant health or related discipline   
2. PhD qualified in relevant subject area  i.e. including but not restricted to health services research, palliative care, child health, psychology *
3. Experience in undertaking high quality qualitative or mixed methods research 
4. Ability to use initiative and work independently, with support from the wider team, and willingness to travel, if necessary, for interviews, conferences, and so on
5. Experience contributing to formal processes of study development, such as writing the protocol, developing data collection materials, applying for ethical approval (or amendments), site set up and writing reports and academic papers
6. Excellent presentation and communication skills (written & verbal) 
7. Being self-motivated and willing to work independently, as well as part of a larger interdisciplinary team

* Please note that this is a PhD level role but candidates who have submitted their thesis and are awaiting award of their PhDs will be considered. In these circumstances the appointment will be made at Grade 5, spine point 30 with the title of Research Assistant. Upon confirmation of the award of the PhD, the job title will become Research Associate and the salary will increase to Grade 6. 

Desirable criteria

1. Previous experience of working with parents and young people with life-limiting conditions 
2. Engaging in multidisciplinary research projects 
3. Strong publication record 

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.

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.

This post is subject to Disclosure and Barring Service and Occupational Health clearances.