• Position: Research Assistant (RA)
• Number of vacancies: 2
• Research groups: Educational Neuroscience and Developmental Disorders group / Infant Language and Cognition group
• Project: ERC Advanced Grant - DISORDERED SPEECH
• Founding source: European Research Council
• Location: Spain > Donostia-San Sebastián
• Research field: Neuroscience > Cognition and Language
• Type of contract/Duration of Contract: Temporary - 4 years
• Job Status: Full-time
• Hours per week: 35
• Starting date: 01/09/2026
• Application deadline: 26/06/2026

Information about the project

The Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language (BCBL) is offering a Research Assistant position within the DISORDERED SPEECH project, recently funded by the European Research Council (ERC).

Advances in recent years have improved our ability to address language problems in both children and adults, with roughly 7 % of children known to have significant spoken language problems (developmental language disorder, DLD) and another 7 % having written language problems (developmental dyslexia, DD). Early identification remains difficult, and no theory has yet explained their overlaps. The ERC-funded DISORDERED-SPEECH project will introduce and explore a novel research frontier for developmental language disorders, focusing on speech rhythm and the accurate production of prosodic patterns. It will use novel speech-production tasks alongside the neural theory of child language acquisition to develop tools for the identification of DD and DLD across a variety of European languages.

Job description

• Coordinate participant recruitment through outreach activities in relevant educational and clinical institutions
• Collaborate on the finalization and implementation of experimental designs
• Collect behavioural and neuroimaging data from bilingual children with and without developmental dyslexia and developmental language disorders
• Preprocess and organize behavioural data
• Participate in regular scientific meetings of the research groups
• Contribute to the dissemination of research findings to the general public

PI and research groups:

The 2 RA positions will be shared between the Educational Neuroscience and Developmental Disorders Group (PI: Marie Lallier) and the Infant Language and Cognition Group (PI: Marina Kalashnikova) at the Basque Center on Cognition Brain and Language.

Marie Lallier is an Ikerbasque Research Professor and the leader of the Educational Neuroscience and Developmental Disorders group. The group has extensive experience in clinical and educational neurocognitive science research and employs a wide range of behavioural and neuroimaging techniques (e.g., EEG, MEG), as well as diverse experimental designs (e.g., longitudinal, training-based, and single-case studies) involving young populations with or without developmental language disorders. The team is also strongly committed to the societal impact of science, actively engaging in the transfer of scientific knowledge to society by working closely with clinicians and educators and fostering dialogue between scientists and the broader community.

Marina Kalashnikova is an Ikerbasque Research Professor and the leader of the Infant Language and Cognition group The group investigates the process of early language acquisition in monolingual and bilingual infants, as well as the interactions between early language abilities and the development of general perceptual and cognitive capacities. The group’s primary objective is to define the earliest determinants of later individual language ability, including but not limited to endogenous factors, such as family risk for developmental language disorders or hearing loss, and environmental factors, such as the quantity and quality of infants’ early language input. The team is highly multidisciplinary; our expertise combines the fields of linguistics, psychology, and neuroscience. The group members have unrestricted access to the BCBL’s BabyLab, a state-of-the-art facility that hosts specialized methods for investigating the first steps of human language development, including fNIRS, EEG, eye-tracking, and LENA, among others.

Required skills:

• Excellent written and oral communication skills in both Basque and Spanish
• Previous experience working with children and communicating with their families
• Strong organizational and interpersonal skills
• Proficiency in organizing and visualizing data (e.g., using Excel)

Desirable skills:

• Previous experience conducting neuropsychological assessments of language and reading disorders
• Experience with working with children with developmental disabilities
• Master’s degree in Psychology, Neuroscience, Cognitive Science, or a related field
• Previous involvement in research projects (e.g., data collection, analysis)
• Good written and oral communication skills in English
• Familiarity with statistical software such as RStudio

Salary: 19.200€ gross per annum

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Training opportunities and Career development plan:

Opportunity to develop professionally in a multicultural, young and dynamic environment.

The necessary technical training for this position will be offered by the centre.

BCBL seeks to foster an environment where all talents can flourish, regardless of gender, sex, sexual orientation, age, sociocultural background, nationality or impairments. We are proud to have in place both an LGTBIQ+ Plan and a Gender Equality Plan to actively promote inclusion and equal opportunities. If you have any questions relating to accessibility or support, please contact us.

Language policy

• The corporative language at the centre is English although, in the Educational Neuroscience and Developmental Disorders research group, Spanish or/and Basque is/are also used as the language of communication within the department.
• The interview may be in English although the level of Basque and Spanish will be assessed at the interview.

Submission of the application and documentation:

To submit your application, applying for “Research Assistant Position - ERC Advanced Grant – DISORDERED SPEECH" and attach the following documentation by 26th June 2026:

• A curriculum vitae
• A statement outlining research interests and motivation to apply for the position
• Two letters of recommendation (submitted by the referees no later than the application deadline)

Learn more about the BCBL’s OTM-R policy

Application process timetable:

Contact details for enquiries:

For technical problems with the calls platform please contact: hr@bcbl.eu

For inquiries or questions related to the content of the position and/or information about the project and the research groups please contact Marie Lallier and/or Marina Kalashnikova, who will be happy to have informal chats about the project and the position with prospective candidates: m.lallier@bcbl.eu and m.kalashnikova@bcbl.eu