The Basque Center on Cognition Brain and Language (BCBL) in San Sebastian (Basque Country, Spain) is looking for a PhD Researcher to join its team.



INFORMATION ABOUT THE POSITION

Position: PhD researcher
Researcher profile: First Stage Researcher (R1- up to the point of PhD)
Number of vacancies: 1
Project: ERC Bilingual LENS
Founding source: ERC Bilingual LENS
Location: Spain > Donostia-San Sebastián
Research field: Neuroscience > Cognition and Language
Type of contract/Duration of Contract: Temporary, 4 years.
Job Status: Full-time/Part-time
Hours per week: 35
Starting date: 1 September 2026
Application deadline: 20 April 2026

Information about the project

The Infant Language and Cognition group at the BCBL is welcoming applications for a PhD Researcher position funded by the European Research Council Consolidator Project Bilingual LENS. The goal of Bilingual LENS is to determine the quantity, quality, and timing of early bilingual exposure that accurately predict bilingual infants’ individual language outcomes. For this purpose, we will conduct large-scale longitudinal studies, combining a variety of neuroimaging, behavioural, and observational measures, to assess bilingual infants’ dual language development during the first two years of life. The studies will target three core components: (1) neural maturation, (2) stimulation through language exposure, and (3) the maturation-exposure interaction. Specifically, we will focus on the development of the maturation-exposure interaction over time, and its role in the continuous fine-tuning of infants’ perceptual sensitivities to their native languages and their developing dual-language competence.


Job description

The PhD researcher will join the multidisciplinary team of the Bilingual LENS project, working under the direct supervision of Dr. Marina Kalashnikova. The PhD project, specifically, will focus on investigating the development of attentional abilities recruited during language processing in young bilingual infants. The PhD researcher will be involved in the design and implementation of experimental studies with young infants, using a combination of neuroimaging (fNIRS) and behavioral (eye tracking) methods. This position offers an engaging collaborative environment and the opportunity to contribute to cutting-edge research on bilingual language development in infancy.


PI and research group:

The Infant Language and Cognition (ILC) group at the Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language 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. ILC’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 members of ILC 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.

The ILC group is led by Dr. Marina Kalashnikova (https://www.bcbl.eu/es/conocenos/equipo/marina-kalashnikova), an Ikerbasque Research Associate Professor, and Principal Investigator on the Bilingual LENS project. Dr. Kalashnikova investigates language acquisition, with a specific focus on the qualities of infants’ early linguistic environment, and its role in shaping individual developmental trajectories.