Research Associate (Analytics) in the Department of Forensic & Neurodevelopmental Sciences

Organisation/Company KINGS COLLEGE LONDON

Research Field Literature

Researcher Profile Recognised Researcher (R2)

Country United Kingdom

Application Deadline 14 Apr 2025 - 00:00 (UTC)

Type of Contract Other

Job Status Full-time

Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme? Not funded by a EU programme

Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure? No

Offer Description

About us

The Department of Forensic and Neurodevelopmental Sciences (FANS) is one of Europe’s largest research groups and one of the few teams in the world bringing together leading experts in brain development and pro and antisocial behaviours. We believe it is essential to investigate the determinants of normal development in order to understand abnormal behaviour (or illness).

About the role

An exciting opportunity has opened for a Post-Doctoral Research Associate to work with Dr Beth Oakley, and Profs Grainne McAlonan, Emily Jones, Eva Loth, and Declan Murphy, to lead on a line of research focused on analysing candidate mechanistic underpinnings of mental health features (e.g., anxiety, depression) across a series of developmentally linked (from infancy to adulthood) European cohort studies of neurodivergent groups (autism, ADHD).

The successful candidate will join a world-class academic team of experts in neurodevelopment with international networks (e.g. aims-2-trials.eu; candy-project.eu; r2d2-mh.eu) and links with industry, non-profit organisations, and the NHS.

The successful candidate will be responsible for conducting multimodal analyses to identify specific mechanisms linked to stress (e.g., profiles of sensory reactivity and its underpinning genetic pathways) that may underpin developmental trajectories of mental health symptoms. In addition, the post holder will investigate key candidate ‘resilience’ factors (e.g., environmental modulators of stress) that may buffer against the above trajectories, and thus represent putative support targets.

The post holder will interact with major international research consortia, also supporting other researchers and PhD students, contributing to project management tasks/deliverables working with the line manager, and to write and publish high-quality papers in peer-reviewed literature.

This is a full-time post (35 Hours per week), and you will be offered a fixed-term contract until 31st October 2026.

About you

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

1. PhD awarded (or submitted) in a research-based field of relevance to neurodevelopment/neuropsychiatry.
2. Advanced knowledge of neurodevelopmental conditions (autism, ADHD), and mental health research, with demonstrable research interest in this topic area.
3. Proven competence in quantitative research methodologies and statistical analysis, particularly in relation to big/longitudinal data, using script-based statistical packages (e.g., R, Stat, MPlus).
4. Experience with longitudinal modelling approaches.
5. Proven track record of writing for peer-reviewed journals commensurate with level of career.
6. Excellent written and verbal communication skills and evidence of effective collaborative working in a multidisciplinary research team.
7. Excellent organisational and time management skills, with the ability to plan and prioritise own workload to meet project targets.
8. Experience with harmonisation and integration of data across diverse large datasets.
9. Experience with data cleaning and analytics of time series physiological data, such as skin conductance, heart rate, eye-tracking.

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.

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.

We are able to offer sponsorship for candidates who do not currently possess the right to work in the UK.

Grade and Salary: £44,355 - £47,882 per annum, including London Weighting Allowance

Job ID: 110686

Close Date: 14-Apr-2025

Contact Person: Dr Beth Oakley

Contact Details: bethany.f.oakley@kcl.ac.uk