increasingly rare to have the chance for that - there's one or two things i've got as far as interview for, and had there been a chance for an informal chat, i'd have probably found out things that would have stopped me wasting any more of their / my time.
probably worth clarifying (if it's not clear from the advert etc) job location, hours and so on to make sure you still want to apply (one of the ones i'm thinking of was something that sounded like - but didn't state - office hours from the advert, but would have been shift based and would have been too close for comfort to first / last trains between where i was and where they were.)
think it's reasonable to ask why it's fixed term - is it maternity / sabbatical leave cover or something like that? is it the sort of thing that is grant funded for X amount of time? are they expecting to close that site / relocate? - and what their plans are at the end of that time.
the prospect of leaving a permanent job for a temporary one is a bit alarming. depends on your line of work, how 'permanent' the current job really is (and how eager you are to leave it - although that's rarely a line you should come out with to potential new employers) and how much good the year (or whatever) in this one could do for your prospects, but may be worth bearing in mind that if it gets to interview, they may be wondering just why you're going for it, in the same way interviewers can wonder why you're going for something you appear 'over-qualified' for.
dunno really. there's probably something clever you could say but i'm not having any bright ideas.
presume you can do a bit of research on the organisation before calling - without wanting you to say what line of work you're in / what organisation this is, there might be an 'i see from your website / trade press that you're doing this thing, can you tell me a bit more about that aspect of it?' question or two you could ask.
