Research Associate in Psychology

# Job description

We wish to appoint a Postdoctoral Researcher (Research Associate) within the Health Psychology Section in the Department of Psychology, Insititute of Psychiatry Psychology and Neuroscience, at King’s College London. The position will be full time (100% FTE) for a fixed-term duration of 2 years.  

 

This position will require in-person work at the Health Psychology Section, Guy’s Hospital, at least three days per week. The other two days can be flexibly worked from Guy’s Hospital or remotely.  

 

The postdoc will join the research team led by Dr. Lauren Heathcote. They will support a cutting-edge, collaborative research programme investigating the psychology of bodily perception, including pain and other somatic symptoms, and how this shapes mental and physical health in children and adults living with chronic illness. The postdoc will primarily work on two projects: 

 

**1.** **A digital body mindset intervention to improve quality of life in childhood cancer survivors** (funded by the Medical Research Council). 

**2.** **Interoceptive training to enhance brain-body integration and reduce anxiety in adult breast cancer survivors**.

 

The post holder will be involved in all aspects of these studies including establishing patient recruitment pipelines through clinical and charity partners, recruiting and retaining participants in line with ethics requirements, obtaining NHS and King’s ethics approvals, patient and public involvement work, data management, data analysis, presentation of findings at national and international conferences, and manuscript preparation and publication.  

 

In addition to these projects, the postdoc will have exposure to all areas of research in the lab, including studies on interdisciplinary projects on body mindsets, sensory attentional flexibility training for chronic pain and chronic dizziness, and uncertainty in cancer survivors. The postdoc will have access to existing datasets within the Heathcote lab and will be given the opportunity and support to lead first-author papers with these datasets. The PI will also provide training in grant writing, mentorship, and career development.  

 

The postdoc will be expected to contribute to the collaborative research culture in the Heathcote Lab including supervision of project students, weekly lab meetings, journal clubs, and lab social activities. This post will be based in the Health Psychology Section, Department of Psychology, embedded within a larger research team which brings together expertise in long-term condition management, implementation, and intervention research. The Health Psychology section has been influential in the evolution of Health Psychology as a discipline in the UK.   

 

This full-time post will be offered on a full-time, fixed term contract for 2 years.# Key responsibilities

- With support from the team, obtain R&D and NHS ethical approval for the interoceptive training study and ethical ammendments for the body mindset intervention as needed.  
- With support from the team, liaise with NHS clinical partners (UCLH, GOSH, the Royal Marsden) and charities to set up and maintain patient recruitment pipelines. This includes overseeing and mentoring students and research assistant staff to collaboratively reach recruitment goals.  
- Provide oversight of collection and management of data arising from the mindset intervention and interoceptive training studies.  
- Lead and oversee data analyses for the mindset intervention and interoceptive training studies.  
- Contribute to the dissemination of findings, including writing up the work for publication in peer-reviewed journals. 
- Anticipate and manage problems that may affect the achievement of research objectives and project timeframes.  
- Work independently to ensure daily tasks and ongoing workloads are prioritised and completed in agreed timeframes 
-  Contribute to the appropriate collection and management of information with full awareness of needs for confidentiality and data protection. 

*The above list of responsibilities may not be exhaustive, and the post holder will be required to undertake such tasks and responsibilities as may reasonably be expected within the scope and grading of the post.*

# Skills, knowledge, and experience 

**Essential criteria**

1.       PhD in psychology or related discipline 

2.       Outstanding communication and organisational skills 

3.       Excellent writing skills for scientific publications 

4.       A good publication record commensurate with level of career 

5.       Effective project management skills 

6.       Ability to work autonomously and lead on tasks where appropriate 

7.       Excellent IT skills, including experience of data input, data cleaning and analysing quantitative data  

8.       Knowledge, understanding and experience of psycho-oncology, interoception science, mind-body interventions, or mindset science 

9.       Some experience of advanced data analyses skills including from longitudinal or trial designs, implementing these analyses in statistical programmes such as R 

 

**Desirable criteria**

1.   PhD in health psychology/behavioral science  

2.   Experience of conducting research in NHS settings including gaining all the necessary research approvals 

3.   Experience in coding behavioural or psycho-physiology paradigms with Matlab or other related softwares 

4.   Previous experience in developming and testing digital health interventions  

 

*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. *

## Further information

Please note that we reserve the right to close earlier if we receive sufficient amount of applications.

 

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