New call for applicant/ research fellow

The research group on hearing impairment and cochlear implants is located at the Dept. of

Educational and Social Policy of the University of Macedonia which works in collaboration

with the AHEPA Cochlear Implant Center as well as other local educational, speechpathology

and parental organizations in Greece. It focuses on assessing and optimizing

communication skills and also fostering educational success for children with hearing loss

and/or cochlear implants. Researchers have access to audiological and speech state-of-the

art equipment (nasometer, palatometer, OAE systems, etc) and work in a scientifically

focused and welcoming multidisciplinary environment. The doctoral students are enrolled in

the Graduate Program of the Dept. of Educational and Social Policy. A vacancy is available

for an:

Early Stage Researcher (PhD)

to investigate “Speech processing cues in children with hearing loss (CI)”

This position has been opened in the framework of ‘iCARE’, a European research and training

network (Marie Curie ITN) on ‘improving Children’s Auditory REhabilitation’. iCARE is an

international and interdisciplinary consortium from academia, industry and socio-economic

agencies. The position is available for 3 years, starting in June 2014 and aims in the

completion of a Ph.D. within 4 years. Limited funding may be available in the 4th year.

The aim of the ESR is to investigate the phono-prosodic cues that underlie the processing of

spoken words by profoundly hearing impaired children with cochlear implants (CI).

Objectives:

 Assess the role of speech signal cues on lexical processing by CI children

 Investigate the acquisition of phonological grammar by CI children in two languages,

Greek and another language.

 Develop hierarchies of phono-prosodic cues that facilitate lexical processing

 Develop e-learning/remote rehabilitation tools for clinical practice and/or parent

guidance.

Tasks and methodology:

 Psycholinguistic experiments that involve presentation of controlled speech stimuli,

computerized, forced-choice tasks, reaction times and elicited productions.

 Obtaining accuracy ratings and performing acoustic analysis of speech via spectrography.

 Conducting speech and language assessments in young children with CI, working with

them in sound-attenuated rooms, making audio recordings.

 Programming and carrying out computerized tasks.

Your profile:

 A university Master degree (or equivalent) in Communication Disorders, Hearing

Impairment, Speech Science or Hearing Science

 Scientific background in the study of speech, acoustics and phonology

 A vested interest in hearing-impaired children and multi-disciplinary international team

work, demonstrated by willingness to move to Salonika, Greece.

 Familiarity with research tools, such as PRAAT, E-Prime or other computerized software

for designing psycholinguistic tasks.

 Technical competence for data analysis (Excell, SPSS, Statistica, etc.).

 Excellent command of English language, both in academic writing and in verbal

communication. Knowledge of Greek is recommended.

 Research experience in any of the above fields and clinical or other experience in working

with children is desirable.

How to apply? Please send your CV, full contact information for two references and letter of

intent to Prof. Areti Okalidou (okalidou@uom.gr). Make sure that you obtain a confirmation

response upon their receipt. Other documents such as English language proficiency and

recommendations may be requested to be available later on.

Mailing address:

Areti Okalidou,

Associate Professor,

Dept. of Educational and Social Policy,

University of Macedonia,

Egnatia 156, P.O. Box 1591,

Salonika 540 06

Greece.

Tel. : +30-2310-891358.

General Information:

Improving Children’s Auditory Rehabilitation (iCARE)

FP7‐Marie Curie Initial Training Network

Objectives

The objectives of improving Children’s Auditory REhabilitation (iCARE) are

1) to provide training to create a new generation of researchers capable of exploiting the

synergies between different disciplines to optimize spoken communication in children with

hearing impairment, and

2) to combine research across disciplines to develop novel methods, training skills and procedures

for improving auditory rehabilitation.

iCARE is an international and interdisciplinary consortium from academia, industry and

socio-economic agencies and offers a choice of 11 PhD and 3 postdoc positions, starting June or

July 2014. Each project is supervised by a multidisciplinary team of experts and will benefit from

extensive training. Please contact 1 or more partners for project specific educational

prerequisites. In December 2013 a website will be available with more details and a procedure for

applying.

Partners and topic

 KU Leuven (Leuven, Belgium): Prof. Dr. Astrid van Wieringen

(astrid.vanwieringen@med.kuleuven.be) Temporal processing in children with unilateral

HI.

 KU Leuven (Leuven, Belgium): Prof. dr .Wim Van Petegem

(wim.vanpetegem@kuleuven.be) Factors influencing e-learning.

 RWTH (Aachen, Germany): Prof. Dr.-Ing. Janina Fels (Janina.Fels@akustik.rwth-aachen.de)

Acoustic Virtual Reality for HI and Development of ‘realistic’ test procedures for children

with HI.

 LiU (Linköping, Sweden:) Prof. dr. Björn Lyxell (bjorn.lyxell@liu.se) Higher-order

(auditory-cognitive) remediation.

 RUN (Nijmegen, the Netherlands): Prof. dr. Ad Snik (A.Snik@kno.umcn.nl) Optimizing

auditory scene analysis for the hearing impaired.

 UCL (London, UK): dr. Lorna Halliday ( l.halliday@ucl.ac.uk) Auditory processing in

children with HI.

 UOM (Thessaloniki, Greece): Prof. dr. Areti Okalidou (okalidou@uom.gr) Speech

processing cues in children with HI.

 GAVLE (Gävle, Sweden): Prof. dr. Staffan Hygge (Staffan.Hygge@hig.se) Learning in

different acoustic scenes.

 COCHLEAR UK (Mechelen, Belgium*): dr. Filiep Vanpoucke (fvanpoucke@cochlear.com)

Investigating listening situations by means of scene classifiers. Music remediation.

 NOLDUS (Wageningen, the Netherlands): dr. Nico van der Aa (n.vanderaa@noldus.nl)

Development of a new system to determine quality of communication.

Eligibility

Marie Curie funding is intended to promote mobility of early career researchers within the

research community. Candidates must:

a) have received a degree (Bachelor or Master's) that qualifies them for PhD training,

b) should not have undertaken more than 4 years of fulltime research subsequent to that degree,

and

c) should not have been resident within the ‘country of interest’ (see individual projects) for more

than 12 months within the 3 years prior to 1 June 2014.

For a full description of the eligibility conditions see:

http://ec.europa.eu/research/mariecurieactions/

An excellent 1st degree, good verbal and written communication skills in English, and an interest

in multidisciplinary research are essential.

At this stage applicants can express their interest and/or ask for additional information by

contacting the individual partner(s). Mobility expenses are provided in addition to a salary.

Prof dr Astrid van Wieringen ExpORL,

Dept Neurosciences Herestraat 49, 3000 Leuven, Belgium

astrid.vanwieringen@med.kuleuven.be

tel 00 32 16 330478