The Rakiura Research Path
Every researcher grows through the same arc, from first steps in a lab to setting a scientific direction of your own.
Community Researcher
Research Associate
Research Contributor
Lead Researcher
Learning and training. You build domain knowledge fast and get the grounding to contribute.
Doing and experimenting. Mentored research tasks, hands on real data.
You own parts of a project and build niche expertise. Somewhere in this stretch you produce your first result the field has never seen: a plot, an analysis, an artifact that exists because you made it. From here the work carries your name.
You propose projects, break them down, and can stand as PI or Co-I on grants, still mentored on the big-picture science.
Community Researcher
Learning and training. You build domain knowledge fast and get the grounding to contribute.
Research Associate
Doing and experimenting. Mentored research tasks, hands on real data.
Research Contributor
You own parts of a project and build niche expertise. Somewhere in this stretch you produce your first result the field has never seen: a plot, an analysis, an artifact that exists because you made it. From here the work carries your name.
Lead Researcher
You propose projects, break them down, and can stand as PI or Co-I on grants, still mentored on the big-picture science.
How you move up
Deliver work
Finish a real piece of research.
Earn recognition
It becomes a recognized accomplishment.
Reach a milestone
Accomplishments add up into milestones.
Move up a rung
Milestones carry you to the next rung.
What you leave with
It starts with a conversation, not a résumé. Apply, tell us what draws you to the work, and we take it from there.