Post-Doctoral Researcher: Care Leavers – Ten Years On Project

at  Trinity College Dublin

ABOUT TRINITY

Trinity is Ireland’s leading university and is ranked 87th in the world (QS World University Rankings 2025). Founded in 1592, the University is steeped in history with a reputation for excellence in education, research, and innovation, which has been inspiring generations of thinkers for over 400 years. Trinity College Dublin - an introduction

POST SUMMARY

Care Leavers – Ten Years On is a groundbreaking national research study commissioned by the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Immigration and Youth (DCEDIY). It will investigate how care experienced adults who have grown up in residential or foster family care in Ireland and are now aged in their late twenties have fared since they left care at age 18. The research contract was awarded following an international public competition to a research team drawn from School of Social Work and Social Policy, TCD, School of Medicine, TCD and School of Education and Social Work, University of Sussex. The study will represent the first comprehensive study of care leaver experiences since leaving care in Ireland and is the first study in a wider suite of research to be commissioned in the DCEDIY Care Experiences Programme. This study and the wider programme of research on children in care and care leavers are responses to one of the key recommendations of The Report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse (The Ryan Report) (2009). The research project entails a target of seventy completed interviews with care experienced adults (CEA) who meet the selection criteria and an estimated further thirty interviews with nominated adults suggested by the CEA. (On previous study experience not all CEA will wish to make a nomination, and not all nominated adults may wish to take part). While primarily based on qualitative interviews, the study will also gather some key demographic background data.
Reporting to the two PIs., the successful candidate will play a key coordinating role in the overall management of the research project. They will support the research team to achieve the objectives of the study. Drawing on research, administrative and networking skills, they will liaise with team members, interviewers and other key actors. Key tasks will include providing administrative support for the overall smooth running of the project, coordinating fieldwork planning and progression, data collection, management and analysis and contributing to drafting work. This post is expected to run for 12 months, full-time (though variations on that can be negotiated at pro-rata rates by the successful candidate) and will be renumerated at a level commensurate with the successful candidate’s experience.

Please refer the Job description for details