Research Associate - HOPSCOTCH

About the role

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

This research post will be working with our Chair of Palliative Care and Child Health, Lorna Fraser on an NIHR funded programme - HOPSCOTCH Helping Optimise Primary Care Support During Transition From Children's Hospice Care. HOPSCOTCH is led by Prof Lucy Ziegler and Dr Sarah Mitchell from the University of Leeds.

The post holder will be responsible for protocol development, study setup activities (i.e. obtaining ethical approval) and conducting data  collection, for the feasibility part of this programme . They will conduct the following tasks; recruit for and conduct semi-structured qualitative interviews with young people with life-limiting conditions and their parents and health, social care and education professionals;  design quantitative feasibility measures; undertake quantitative and qualitative data analysis; write for publication; disseminate findings.

Expertise, knowledge, and experience of young people with life-limiting conditions,  complex medical or palliative care  needs are necessary, and mixed methods research experience is essential. Enthusiasm in developing a career in palliative care or child health research will be beneficial and we are a supportive team that can assist with developing future grants and fellowship applications.

King’s considers the professional and personal development of our staff a priority and we offer an inspiring range of opportunities for training and career progression. Our Organisational Development team provide in-house and bespoke learning.

This is a full-time post (35 hours per week) and you will be offered a fixed term contract from 1/9/2025 until 31/08/27.

About You

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

Essential criteria

• First Degree in relevant  health related discipline
• PhD qualified in relevant subject area i.e. including but not restricted to health services research, palliative care, child health, psychology
• Mixed methods research experience, including skills to undertake qualitative interviews, design questionnaires and quantitative and qualitative data analysis
• Experience of undertaking feasibility or pilot studies of interventions within  healthcare settings
• Experience of contributing to formal processes of study development, such as writing the protocol, developing interview materials, applying for ethical approval (or amendments) and writing up reports and academic papers
• Excellent presentation and communication skills (written & verbal)
• Being self-motivated and willing to work independently, with support from the wider team, and willingness to travel,  as well as part of a larger interdisciplinary team
• Committed to equality, diversity and inclusion, actively addressing areas of potential bias

* 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

• Previous experience of working with parents and young people with life-limiting conditions 
• Engaging in multidisciplinary research projects  
• Strong publication record 
• Previous experience of intervention development 

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