1. Application of technical knowledge including novel situations

Ground breakers generally think outside the box to apply the already existing/newly discovered technical knowledge to a wide range of real-life situations via various methods.

2. Lateral thinking

Ground breakers often think laterally, which means they view problems through different perspectives to solve novel problems.

3. Curiosity

Ground-breakers are generally curious and passionate about their research topic. They use this curiosity to drive them to accomplish their research study.

4. Critically examine details

Ground-breakers have a keen eye for detail. This comes in handy when analysing results, identifying problems and/or planning experiments. Ground-breakers criticise and analyse their own work to reflect on whether the results are reliable and robust.

5. Informative written communication

Ground-breakers use their information skills to gather a wide pool of information around the topic of interest, this is commonly called a ‘literature review’ and it forms the basis for most research projects. The information skills are also used along with written communication to present the findings effectively in a report, allowing another individual to replicate similar results following the same experimentation.