King's seeks new recruits as bidding war with UCL hots up

King's College London is advertising 63 posts in The Times Higher this week in the wake of a review of its research profile.

Many of the jobs are in chemical biology and bioinformatics and will, it is hoped, boost King's chances of being awarded the contract to house and jointly run the Medical Research Council's National Institute for Medical Research.

The college is involved in a fierce bidding war with University College London for the contract.

Rick Trainor, King's principal, told The Times Higher : "Many of these jobs are in the area of translational research - research directly related to understanding the mechanism of disease. It is this research that the new institute will focus on."

Both King's and UCL face an uphill struggle to win the contract. The MRC issued a statement earlier this month saying that neither bid "fully met the vision for NIMR". The council is revisiting the colleges.

It has previously expressed concerns about King's academic record. The college famously cut its chemistry department in 2003 and then also made cuts in life sciences.

The three pages of King's advertisements are part of a £4.5 million investment strategy and contain 32 new jobs and 31 existing posts.