King's College London

About us:

The Addictions Department, also known as the National Addiction Centre (NAC), is one of the most productive addictions research groups in Europe. We represent an important area of health-related study as the Addictions Clinical Academic Group (CAG) within King’s Health Partners, and form one of the core areas of the Academic Health Science Centre that brings together university partners King’s College London with the NHS from South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, King’s College Hospital and Guy’s and St Thomas’. RAND Europe rated our work on Substance Abuse Research as leading in the field.  

The Addictions department at King’s College London is based at Denmark Hill in London, for this role, the appointed person would also be working across drug services in London.

About the role:  

We would like to appoint a Research Assistant to play a key role within a newly NIHR funded project. The research focuses on the development, evaluation and testing of a Virtual Reality-enhanced Cue Exposure Treatment integrated with a wearable device to address craving, prevent relapse and improve treatment outcomes of people with cocaine dependence. 

A key challenge in helping people to recover from cocaine addiction (or dependence) is their craving for the drug that can be triggered by ‘cues’ in their environment, such as situations or objects, which remind them of the pleasurable effects of cocaine. This process is known as ‘classical conditioning’ and the aim of this study is to reduce the risk of relapse to cocaine through use of novel technologies to reduce craving.

The person appointed will be employed by the Addictions Department at King’s College London (KCL) and will report to Professor Paolo Deluca (Lead applicant). The person appointed will also be working closely with the Project Manger Dr Eileen Brobbin, who is based at King’s College London.

This is a full-time post and you will be offered a fixed term contract of 10 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. An Undergraduate and/or Masters degree in a related area, including relevant training in research methods 
2. Experience of quantitative or qualitative research methods 
3. A good understanding of methods in addiction research 
4. Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to adapt communication to the situation 
5. Excellent time management skills with the ability to multitask and prioritise and complete work within deadlines. A proven ability to coordinate and deliver projects 
6. Ability to work independently as well as part of a team 
7. A commitment to promoting equality, diversity and inclusivity for staff and students  

Desirable criteria

1. Experience working with vulnerable people 
2. Experience of conducting research in clinical settings 
3. Experience of coordinating research trials in NHS settings 
4. Experience of conducting qualitative interviews 
5. Experience of working in multidisciplinary teams 

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/or Occupational Health clearances.