Research Assistant

King’s College London is a leading University with nine Faculties. As part of King’s Health Partners , we have an excellent environment for health care interaction and a strong focus on mentoring and career development.

The 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF2021) placed King’s applied and allied health research 1st for: overall proportion of research rated 4* (world-leading, the best mark possible), research papers rated 4*, impact rated 4*, environment rated 4*(joint), Grade Point Average and Power.  REF2021 rated as world-leading: 100% of our environment, 86% of our impact and 70% of our research overall. Over 95% of our research overall was rated as world-leading or internationally excellent.

As of 2025, our Faculty is number 1 in the world for Nursing (QS world rankings). King’s produces more highly cited research outputs (top 1% citations) on palliative care than any other centre internationally (SciVal), and is second in the world on the same metric for nursing and midwifery. King’s is the largest provider of health care education in Europe.

The Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery & Palliative Care (NMPC) is based in the heart of central and south London. It includes the Cicely Saunders Institute for Palliative Care, Policy & Rehabilitation , the premier Institute for Palliative Care, bringing together clinical, research and education teams.

Our applied clinical and health multidisciplinary research transforms therapies, the healthcare experience and outcomes for patients and those important to them, wherever they are cared for. Our award-winning NMPC education programmes span pre-registration nursing and midwifery, and multidisciplinary post-graduate taught and research programmes.

We are committed to staff development, and offer opportunities to identify and access appropriate training and professional growth.

We are really pleased to offer this excellent opportunity to join our team in the Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery & Palliative Care as a Research Assistant.

You will be coordinating projects within a five-year programme of research focused on outcome harmonisation. Over the five years, you will be responsible for delivering three patient-centred Core Outcome Set (COS) projects in the field of infectious diseases. This programme is part of The International Severe Acute Respiratory and Emerging Infection Consortium (ISARIC) initiatives, where you will work in close collaboration with consortium members and various stakeholders worldwide.

The programme requires a strong ability to oversee and manage complex projects while working closely with a diverse group of stakeholders, including healthcare professionals, researchers, policymakers, and representatives of people with lived experience of different diseases to ensure comprehensive input and consensus in COS development. The role may involve additional local and international travel to collaborate with ISARIC partners and other stakeholders.

You will coordinate evidence synthesis informing multiple initiatives, under the guidance of leading methodological and clinical experts to inform the selection of core outcomes. The process involves evidence synthesis informing the development of a long list of outcomes through literature reviews, interviews, and surveys. You will plan and execute consensus development processes to finalise the COS and further processes aiming at the selection of the most appropriate tools to measure the most critical outcomes.

In addition, you will help with the creation of a comprehensive toolkit for selecting and implementing COS in clinical research, contribute to the dissemination of research findings through academic publications and media outreach, and plan and execute dissemination events such as webinars and conferences.

This position is ideally suited to candidates with an interdisciplinary approach, strong communication skills, and a solid background in clinical medicine and life sciences. The successful candidate must demonstrate research excellence, the ability to work both independently and within a team, and a passion for active experimentation and innovation. This role offers an exciting opportunity to contribute to significant advancements in patient-centred outcomes research.

This is a full-time role (35 hours a week), and you will be offered ​a fixed term​ contract until 30th November 2027.

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

Essential criteria

Desirable criteria

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 next page after you click “Apply Now”. This document will provide information of what criteria will be assessed at each stage of the recruitment process.

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.

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.