Research Assistant

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’. 

About the role

The RUN OUT study is investigating the role of cannabis intoxication and cannabis withdrawal in psychosis relapse. Many people with psychotic disorders use cannabis, and its use is associated with adverse outcomes such as symptom exacerbation, relapse and hospitalisation. Recent findings from our research group suggest that cannabis withdrawal syndrome can also act as a trigger for psychosis relapse (Chesney et al. BJPsych 2024) or exacerbate symptoms after admission to hospital. The RUN OUT study will recruit people presenting with acute psychosis and ask them to describe their recent drug use and provide urine, blood and saliva samples.

The Research Assistant position will be full time and will be based at the Addictions department (IOPPN). The successful candidate will work with Dr Edward Chesney & Prof Marta Di Forti and play a crucial role in supporting and contributing to the research project. Their main role is to recruit participants and collect data. This will involve working across King’s Health Partners, at local A&E departments and inpatient wards, and working with research participants who are acutely unwell.

The successful candidate will have the opportunity to attend regular teaching events as well as training courses available at the IoPPN and across KCL to further develop skills and knowledge.

They will work closely with RUN OUT team to ensure effective collaboration and coordination of research activities, strong organizational skills, excellent communication abilities, and the capacity to work both independently and as part of a team.

This is a full time post (35 hours per week), and you will be offered a fixed term contract until 16 February 2027.

About You

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

Essential criteria

• Degree in a relevant subject area
• Proactive attitude, showing initiative when faced with challenges and demonstrating problem-solving skills
• Excellent organisational and time management skills
• Strong written and verbal communication skills
• Ability to collaborate with diverse stakeholders and work well within a team
• Experience collecting biological specimens from human participants, such as urine, blood and saliva. Phlebotomy training
• Highly motivated, detail-oriented, and capable of working independently while maintaining strong collaborative relationships with colleagues in KCL and elsewhere

Desirable criteria

• Experience in supporting the management of research projects at KCL (familiarity with protocol development, ethics applications, etc)
• Experience working with patient populations, especially those with psychosis or addiction
• Ability to use statistical packages for data analysis (SPSS/STATA/R)

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