"Research Assistant"

About us

In April 2024, IoPPN, King’s College London established a national PHI-UK Population Mental Health Consortium (PMHC) with a focus on the upstream prevention of mental ill health, funded by UKRI. This post will be situated at KCL, working with and across this large disseminated UK-wide partnership spanning 10+ universities and other organisations across the country, alongside people with lived experience of mental illness. The role will support various PMHC projects with relation to project administration, stakeholder and policymaker engagement, and coordination of patient and public involvement groups.

About the role

This post is an exciting opportunity for a Research Assistant (RA) to support project management, patient and public involvement, and contribute to research outputs for the Population Mental Health Consortium. The role will include the following duties:

1. The RA will coordinate a lived experience advisory group and help to organise and facilitate stakeholder workshops, including with people with lived experience of mental ill health, as well as policymakers, and academic researchers.
2. The RA will lead on notetaking and data collection during stakeholder workshop meetings and produce publishable outputs (for example blogs and summary reports).
3. The RA will work with the PHI UK consortium (a large population mental health consortium). The role will involve supporting project management and coordination activities, including organising stakeholder and policymaker consultation workshops, and carrying out a range of administrative tasks.
4. The RA will work as a part of the Consortium’s research team and be supported with career development opportunities such as contributing to academic papers.

The RA will be conversant in public health, particularly in relation to mental health, the social determinants of health, and health inequalities. You will also be skilled in communicating with lived experience groups and stakeholders from various backgrounds, evidence synthesis, and developing research summaries. Ideally you will have had experience of working with people with lived experience of mental health difficulties, and of interdisciplinary and cross-organisational collaborations. You will be able to evidence strong skills in written and verbal communication and have a flexible mindset, able to work with a range of stakeholders and partners, at times under pressure, and to tight deadlines. You should have experience of organising meetings or workshops with broad ranges of stakeholders, and in developing written outputs from workshops.

This is a full-time post (35 Hours per week), and you will be offered a fixed term contract for 12 months from the start date (from January 2026).

Post-holders are expected to work at least 3 days per week on site (Denmark Hill Campus, IOPPN, KCL) with occasional Travels within the UK for meetings 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. Master’s degree (e.g. MSc, MPH) in relevant subject area (public health, mental health, social determinants of health, or other relevant areas).
2. Demonstrable experience of engaging with various stakeholders (eg. policy, community organisations, public health) via meetings and in-person workshops to inform or generate research evidence.
3. Previous experience of writing reports or research outputs relating to population mental health research.
4. Experience/ evidence of communicating with patient groups or PPI groups, including people with lived experience of mental health problems.
5. Experience developing plain English summaries of research.

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

We pride ourselves on being inclusive and welcoming. We embrace diversity and want everyone to feel that they belong and are connected to others in our community.

We are committed to working with our staff and unions on these and other issues, to continue to support our people and to develop a diverse and inclusive culture at King's. As part of this commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion and through this appointment process, it is our aim to develop candidate pools that include applicants from all backgrounds and communities.

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.

This post is subject to Disclosure and Barring Service and Occupational Health clearances.

We reserve the right to close the advertisement earlier if we receive a large number of applications.

Grade and Salary: £39,076 - £41,761 per annum, including London Weighting Allowance

Job ID: 131106

Close Date: 30-Nov-2025

Contact Person: Sammani Pavithra Contact Details: pavithra_sammani.perera@kcl.ac.uk