Job Description

The department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics (TAL), within the Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics (MMLL) is seeking to appoint a part time Research Associate for 9 months, to work in the context of CLIC (the Centre for Learning and Individualised Cognition).


The CLIC project aims to better understand executive functions, and in particular cognitive flexibility, how CF can be enhanced through training, and how it relates to social factors such as multilingualism. The CLIC project represents a collaboration between over 20 established researchers at Nanyang Technology University Singapore and the University of Cambridge (Directors Zoe Kourtzi, Cambridge and Annabel Chen, NTU), and has been fully funded by Singapore NRF. PIs from Cambridge are in the Faculty of MMLL (TAL), Psychology, Education, Psychiatry and have research networks across Neuroscience on the one hand and the Language Sciences on the other. The project has just entered the second phase of a 5-year project fully funded by Singapore NRF.


The new Research Associate will contribute to and support work on that project. In particular, they will be asked to advise on and prepare new empirical tasks to measure executive functions, train cognitive flexibility, and in particular measure linguistic phenomena potentially related to cognitive flexibility.


The successful candidate will have completed a PhD thesis in a relevant field (Linguistics, Psychology, Education) by the start date. Preference may be given to applicants with an interest in the relationship between multilingualism and executive functions. It is anticipated that the Research Associate may wish to spend some time developing their PhD for publication. They will contribute to collaborative activities and workshops, and will be encouraged to design and lead events. They may provide occasional research assistance to the PI and will be mentored and supported in their career development by the relevant PIs on the CLIC project.


The funds for this post are available for 9 months in the first instance.


Please ensure that you upload your Curriculum Vitae (CV), a covering letter and a research publication list in the Upload section of the online application. If you upload any additional documents which have not been requested, we will not be able to consider these as part of your application.


If you have any questions about this vacancy please contact Henriette Hendriks on hpjmh2@cam.ac.uk. Question on the application process should be directed to the Schools HR team on MMLLPersonnel@admin.cam.ac.uk.


The closing date for applications is midnight (BST) on Thursday 9 October 2025.



Please quote reference GP47406 on your application and in any correspondence about this vacancy


The University actively supports equality, diversity and inclusion and encourages applications from all sections of society.


The University has a responsibility to ensure that all employees are eligible to live and work in the UK.

Key information

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Department/location

Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics

Salary

37,694-46,049 pro rata

Reference

GP47406

Category

Research

Date published

25 September 2025

Closing date

9 October 2025