Postdoctoral Research Associates (x2) - Youth Mental Health

Contact name and email for candidate queries

Gemma Knowles gemma.knowles@kcl.ac.uk

About us:

We look forward to welcoming the successful candidates to the ESRC Centre for Society and Mental Health (CSMH; www.kcl.ac.uk/csmh) and the Health Service and Population Research Department (HSPR; www.kcl.ac.uk/hspr), at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN), King’s College London.

About the role:

Overview

We are looking for two highly motivated and talented postdoctoral researchers to work with Dr Gemma Knowles and team on an exciting new research project on youth mental health. The project starts in April 2025 and is funded by a 5-year Wellcome Trust Mental Health Award.

The Team

We are a multidisciplinary team based in London, Tokyo, and Mannheim. The successful candidates will join the London team and collaborate across sites. We are a friendly, supportive, passionate, and hard-working group. We place great value on working with young people from diverse backgrounds to deliver relevant, engaging, inclusive, and impactful research.

About you:
(the candidate)

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

Essential criteria

1. PhD or equivalent experience in a relevant area, e.g., population mental health, social epidemiology, quantitative social science, sociology, or other relevant area/topic (awarded or near completion)
2. Exceptional ability to inspire, engage, and involve young people from diverse backgrounds in scientific research, as co-researchers and participants
3. Excellent ability to work well in a team and create inclusive and supportive environments in which junior colleagues (e.g., research assistants, PhD students) are well supported
4. Experience of juggling multiple deadlines and effectively prioritizing tasks
5. Excellent knowledge, skills, or experience in at least 3 of the following:
6. Systematic reviews, scoping reviews, detailed literature reviews, or meta-analysis
7. Designing, piloting, and evaluating new measures, e.g., questionnaires
8. Applied measurement modelling
9. Experience sampling methods (ESM)
10. Passive data collection methods, e.g., wearables, app-based
11. Biological sampling with young people, e.g., saliva, blood, hair
12. Coproducing quantitative or mixed-methods research with young people or experts-by-experience
13. Conducting research in schools
14. Managing, cleaning, and analysing large/longitudinal datasets
15. Coordinating research projects (or similar)
16. Relevant social theory, e.g., intersectionality, ecosocial, feminist
17. Advanced quantitative methods, e.g., growth modelling, structural equation modelling, growth mixture modelling, mediation models, multiple imputation or other methods for handling missing data, methods for analysing intensive longitudinal data, etc.

Please indicate clearly in your application your 3+ areas of expertise.

Desirable criteria

1. Experience of collecting or analysing qualitative data, e.g., focus groups, interviews
2. Experience of working in a multi-disciplinary or international team, or with partners/collaborators for whom English is a second/third language
3. Experience of living or working in Japan, or ability to speak/read Japanese, or some understanding of the mental health research landscape in Japan

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 next page after you click “Apply”. This document will provide information of what criteria will be assessed at each stage of the recruitment process.

*  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. 

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