Trial Manager - King's College London

About us

The National Addiction Centre (NAC), incorporating the Addictions Department at King’s College London, is one of the most productive addictions research groups in Europe. We also explore an important area of health-related study as the Addictions Clinical Academic Group (CAG) within King’s Health Partners, and form one of the core areas of the Academic Health Science Centre that brings together university partners King’s College London with the NHS from South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, King’s College Hospital, and Guy’s and St Thomas’. RAND Europe rated our work on Substance Abuse Research as leading in the field, and Substance Use is one of the identified themes of the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre for Mental Health which is based at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN), one of the world’s leading centres for clinical and research training.  

About the role

We are seeking an enthusiastic individual with a keen interest in the management of clinical trials and ideally with previous experience of working in a research environment.  The successful candidate will work within the Addictions Department and with the accredited UKCRC King’s Clinical Trials Unit (KCTU), providing administrative support to both a large multi-centre clinical trial and also a healthy volunteer study of a novel medication. The post holder will work closely with the trial’s Chief Investigator and the KCTU’s Operational Director, to ensure rigorous trial standards are maintained.

The position will involve managing and facilitating every aspect of the following two studies:

Study 1: PRET (Prison Release Engagement Trial)

Prisons in England have a throughput of 150 thousand individuals released annually. Among them more than a quarter have a history of heroin use. While in prison, many individuals receive addiction treatment, but in the first three weeks post-release only 4 out of 10 prisoners link to treatment in the community. The 36-month study will develop a smartphone app to support prison-leavers who want to receive treatment support after release and will conduct a large-scale randomised intervention trial.

Study 2: Buccal Naloxone experimental study

A novel buccal form of naloxone is being tested in healthy volunteers (conducted in a purpose-built Clinical Research Facility). The role of the post-holder will be responsible to help ensure smooth running of recruitment, data collection/entry, administration relating to the clinical study, and preparation of interim and final reports, both internally and to the funder. In addition the role may include coordination of consultation with families, outreach staff and active drug users themselves.  

The successful candidate will work with Prof Sir John Strang and Dr Julia Rozanova and play a crucial role in managing, overseeing, and supporting two exciting research projects - PRET (Prison Release Engagement Trial) and Buccal Naloxone. They will work closely with study teams to manage and facilitate the effective completion of research activities. This position requires prior experience with managing large research projects that include a randomized trial component as well as familiarity with treatment for opioid use disorder in the criminal justice system and in the community in England. This position requires excellent team building and collaborative skills and ability to problem-solve in real time and interact effectively across a range of various stakeholders and organizations, including experts-by-lived-experience, governmental officials, and clinicians.

The post-holder will have strong organizational skills, excellent communication abilities, and the capacity to work both independently and as part of a team. Understanding UK Government priorities towards linkage of prison-leavers to opioid use disorder treatment is also essential to this post.

The Trial Manager 100% FTE position will be split between the PRET study (40% FTE) and Buccal Naloxone study (60% FTE) in the first 12 months, then 100% FTE on PRET study in months 13-36.

The position will be based at the Addictions Department within the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience.

This is a full-time post (100% FTE), and you will be offered a fixed term contract until 1st July 2027.