"Research Assistant"

About us

The Research Assistant will join the newly launched Leverhulme Centre for Research on Slavery in War (CRSW), within the School of Security Studies, King’s College London. In partnership with the Rights Lab at the University of Nottingham, CRSW will systematically investigate the slavery–war nexus across history and into the future, using novel interdisciplinary methods that span the social sciences, humanities, and data sciences. By reshaping knowledge and creating innovative tools and early warning systems, CRSW aims to support the global goal of eliminating forced labour, modern slavery, and human trafficking.

About the role

The Research Assistant will support the research strand ‘Forecasting Slavery in War’. They will support innovative strategic foresight activities and contemporary conflict analysis, focusing upon a wide range of political, military, technological and humanitarian issues. Key responsibilities include: conducting literature reviews, database searches, and case study reports; conducting research on new methods and technologies within foresight and futures research; creating and maintaining datasets in Excel; helping to design and facilitate strategic foresight workshops; contributing to the development of future-crafting methods and activities; creating informative and/or visually compelling materials for workshops and other research activities; contributing to reports and other written outputs; helping to update websites and contribute to communications outputs; and actively participating as a member of the research team.

This is a full time post (35 Hours per week), and you will be offered a three-year fixed term contract.

About you

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

Essential criteria

• MA degree in war studies, conflict studies, international security or related field
• Experience conducting research on at least one of the following: non-state armed groups; civil war and insurgency; modern slavery; future trends and threats; emerging technologies
• Experience conducting literature reviews, database research and case studies
• Experience creating and maintaining datasets in Excel (or equivalent)
• Experience designing and/or supporting expert workshops
• Experience with foresight and futures methods (such as scenario design, trend mapping, back-casting)
• Experience designing and/or updating websites
• Excellent writing, research and organisational skills

Desirable criteria

• Experience creating informative and/or visually compelling materials for workshops or other activities
• Experience conducting research on more than one of the following: non-state armed groups; civil war and insurgency; modern slavery; future trends and threats; emerging technologies
• Interest in quantitative methods for forecasting and trend analysis
• Experience as active contributor to a research group
• Demonstrated interest in fictional narratives and imaginaries as source of knowledge and influence

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 advert. 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. 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 on date to be confirmed.

Grade and Salary: £38,232 - £42,999 per annum including London Weighting Allowance. Job ID: 125325. Close Date: 29-Sep-2025. Contact Person: Dr Jeni Mitchell. Contact Details: Jeni.mitchell@kcl.ac.uk.