King's College London

About Us

The Toxicology & Forensic Sciences Department is based in the Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences within the School of Cancer & Pharmaceutical Sciences in the Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine at King’s Waterloo Campus. It brings together over 70 researchers working on analytical techniques for improving the health and justice systems. Overall, the aim of the Department is to develop and improve forensic science methodologies and explore and minimise harms on human health and public safety.

About The Role

The Research Assistant will support the work of the Preventable Deaths Tracker (https://preventabledeathstracker.net/), the first national digital vigilance platform that enables learning from medico-legal death investigations.

The Preventable Deaths Tracker (PDT) is a relational database currently run on WordPress that automatically collects coroners’ Prevention of Future Deaths reports (PFDs) published in England and Wales since 2013 and Fatal Accident Inquiries (FAIs) written by sheriffs since 1999. There are over 6,300 PFDs and 900 FAIs published as of August 2026 in the database that updates daily. The PDT has been used to conduct a range of research and policy reports: https://preventabledeathstracker.net/research/ and is being used to drive forward legislative change in Parliament.

The core purpose of the PDT is to save lives by enabling learning and prevention of avoidable and premature deaths. The PDT’s areas of focus are:

1. Tools: Develop digital solutions for using, identifying, and disseminating statistics and lessons from avoidable deaths across Great Brittain.
2. Epidemiological surveillance: Assess trends and identify safety signals for action to prevent future deaths.
3. Practice and policy: Evaluate actions taken or inactions following death investigations to inform practice and shape policy interventions for prevention.

The primary role of the Research Assistant is to lead on our evaluation work (phase/area 3) to understand the extent of non-responses to PFDs and FAIs, the quality of responses from the organisations, and quantify actions taken or inactions to prevent future deaths.

This is a full-time post (35 hours per week), and you will be offered a fixed term contract for 12 months. The role is funded by the charity, Changing Ideas.

The post is based in the Department of Toxicology and Forensic Sciences and is designed for flexible/hybrid working with both a mix of online and in person meetings, seminars and events.

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. Relevant degree in health (e.g. psychology, biomedical sciences), justice (e.g. law, criminology), statistics, or social sciences, with a good qualification (e.g. 2.1) or evidence of equivalent relevant experience and/or training.
2. Evidence of relevant data collection, management and analysis experience, including use and interpretation of both qualitative and quantitative data, and reproducible methods.
3. Evidence of administrative and project management skills, including a high attention to detail and thorough organisation skills alongside maintaining deadlines, careful record keeping/ monitoring, and comprehensive coordination.
4. Evidence of relevant research experience, including literature reviews, critical appraisal, study protocol development, implementation of research protocols, data extraction, coding, and delivering outputs.
5. Evidence of excellent written and verbal communication skills, including previous delivery of research and/or policy outputs.
6. Evidence of relevant stakeholder engagement and relations management.
7. Evidence of strong digital/computer literacy, including but not limited to Outlook, Teams, Word/Docs, Excel/Sheets, statistical software, referencing software and other online platforms (e.g. WordPress).
8. Ability to work independently while contributing to a team, including respecting the time of others and maintaining a strong work ethic.

Desirable criteria

1. Experience collecting and/or using publicly available information, including preparing, submitting, tracking, and following up on Freedom of Information (FOI) requests.
2. Knowledge and/or experience of the death investigation system in the UK and/or abroad, including coroners/inquests, and/or public health and/or safety (e.g. patient safety).
3. Experience of contributing to academic publications, policy briefings, reports, conference abstracts or presentations, grant/ funding application or other research and policy outputs.
4. Experience of research impact and engagement, including communicating research findings beyond academia (e.g. policymakers, public bodies, charities, professional organisations, the media, and/or working with other relevant stakeholders).
5. Knowledge and understanding of the UK public sector landscape, including government departments, NHS, local authorities/ councils, regulators and other public bodies, including their respective roles, responsibilities and accountability structures.

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.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is evolving rapidly, and we recognise its growing role in professional work. Applicants may use AI tools to support preparation of their application, for example to research the role or structure written responses. However, applications must reflect the applicant’s own work and experience. AI tools should not be used during interviews or assessment activities unless this has been agreed in advance as a reasonable adjustment. Further guidance on the use of AI in recruitment can be found  here.

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 are due to be held in September 2026.

We are also recruiting for a Research Associate position, please see  https://www.kcl.ac.uk/jobs/156965-research-associate-safety-epidemiologist-scotland