Sustainable Packaging Research Assistant

We are seeking a temporary Research Assistant to support a project led by Jo Underwood and The Policy Institute at King?s College London over the summer of 2025. The role will focus on drafting an initial report summarising preliminary findings from research conducted in 2024?25.

Project Overview:

• The research examines how London?s local authorities process in-person homelessness applications.
• FOI requests were submitted to all London boroughs by Jo and King?s Legal Clinic.
• Additional qualitative research has included stakeholder interviews and a roundtable exploring the impact of closed in-person referrals on A&E departments.

Research Experience 

Key Responsibilities:

• Conduct a short literature review on the impact of ?closed-door? local authority practices on:
  • People experiencing homelessness
  • A&E and emergency healthcare services
• Review and quality-check existing data (FOIs, interviews, roundtable notes)
• Draft a short-format report and/or public-facing outputs (e.g., blog posts, opinion pieces) to support future funding efforts

We are looking for a research assistant to support us for a short time with a number of projects in the Policy Institute?s Evidence Development and Incubation Team (EDIT). 

The research assistant will be supporting the team with carrying out aspects of the qualitative research. Activities will include tasks such conducting observations, scheduling qualitative interviews, arranging transcription, and maintaining folders and fieldwork logs. The research assistant?s work on qualitative research is likely to include data management in NVivo, conducting qualitative interviews, carrying out qualitative analysis if appropriate, and supporting with report drafting including literature reviews and background sections. 

This specific role is for researchers with previous experience working with young people with SEND (especially autism and learning difficulties). The main activities involve: 

1. Working closely with the project team providing feedback on relevant materials to ensure they are adapted to the target group. 

2. Conducting observations during site selection days, surveys (when required) 

3. Conducting semi-structured interviews 

4. Other activities related to the research project, as defined by the Project Manager/Leads

There are 148 hours available for this role. 

• MA/MSc

-Experience working with young people with SEND 

-Understanding of qualitative research approaches 

-Experience conducting semi-structured interviews and observations 

-Experience working as part of a team or in a co-ordination role 

-Experience in carrying out qualitative data management in NVivo 

Desirable:

-Experience conducting qualitative analysis 

-Experiencing with drafting policy reports

The King's Festival of Artificial Intelligence is returning between Tuesday 20 and Saturday 24 May 2025, with a series of public events, including lectures, workshops and demonstrations, exploring artificial intelligence with researchers from across King's. The festival will take place across multiple venues: the Strand Campus, Science Gallery London, Guys Campus, and the London Institute of Healthcare Engineering. 

In order to support with the smooth running of the festival, the KIAI is looking for up to ten event assistants. Event assistants will be responsible for supporting the KIAI team and lead event assistants to register attendees for events, support attendees to navigate King?s, and support event deliverers with any requirements during events. Interviews for the position will be held online on 6th and 7th May (with some flexibility to work around candidates? other commitments). 

Successful candidates will ideally be expected to work on at least two days between 20 and 24 May. Hours of work are varied but shifts will take place between the hours of 9am and 9pm each day. Event assistants may be required to attend a compulsory paid briefing/training session before their first shift.

Key responsibilities

Your responsibilities will vary but in general you may be expected to:

• Greet and register attendees to festival events including staffing the registration desks at the entrance to festival venues.
• Support attendees to navigate King?s including finding the correct venues for their events and make use of King?s facilities, including staffing the navigation desk outside the Great Hall. 
• Support event organisers to distribute materials at the beginning or during an event and collect these at the end. 
• Support with Q&As during events, for e.g. through use of microphones. 
• Support attendees to complete evaluation forms at the end of events (if required). 
• Report any issues that cannot be resolved immediately to a member of the KIAI team or a Lead Event Assistant.
• For Family Zone event assistants: support families attending the event, signposting to available facilities and assist in managing any queues for demos.
• This list is not exhaustive and event assistants may be asked to undertake reasonable duties in line with the role to ensure the smooth-running of the festival. 

N/A

Essential: experience of supporting events including but not limited to academic seminars, conferences, university open days, and outreach events.

Essential: strong communication skills, and willingness to communicate with the general public. 

Essential: excellent organisation and time management skills with the ability to multitask. 

Desirable: interest in data science and/or AI OR public engagement opportunities. 

Desirable: experience of communicating and/or working with young people (under 18).

Desirable: first aid trained.

Desirable: fire marshall trained. 

Desirable: DBS checked.