Research Assistant - Phone Assessor

Number of positions available: 3

Location: (Hybrid) UCC, Brookfield and home

Duration: 4 weeks, part time (3 days per week in the morning/early afternoon and 2 days 
per week in the afternoon/evening)

Rate of pay: €31,150 pro rata (approx. €300 per week)

Start Date: 8th September 2025 (1 hour online training the week before)

What is the Happy Talk research project?

Happy Talk is a speech and language programme that aims to support child language  development in socially disadvantaged communities. Through Happy Talk, speech and language therapists (SLTs) engage parents and early years educators in developing their capacity to improve the language learning abilities of children aged 0-6 years. The goal of the Happy Talk Research project is to assess if this model of care is beneficial compared to standard care, in different contexts. We will also examine if the programme is cost effective. For this project, we are targeting preschool children and junior infants across the Republic of Ireland. You can learn more at our website.

What does a typical day look like?

You will phone parents to complete 3 questionnaires regarding their child’s communication skills and overall wellbeing and development. These phone calls take approximately 15-20 minutes. You will need to record responses in Castor, our electronic database. You will receive training on the phone assessment process and how to use Castor. You will be provided with a protocol to follow. You will be assigned approximately 120 participants to phone across the duration of your contract.

Who are we looking for?

We are looking for applicants who are interested in participating in a large-scale research  project, and have a confident phone manner. You will have good organisational skills as you will need to manage your own workload and liaise with parents and the UCC research team. You will use your own phone for this so we recommend you have a plan with unlimited calls, or alternatively some parents may prefer to have the call via WhatsApp