[fivea]

> Is this common in academia?

This is extremely common in academia. This is typically used to ensure exceptional long time researchers and PhD students, who already have all the context they need to have, have a shot at staying in the institution as a reward for their work.

The standard application process doesn't allow this because you have literally the whole world to compete with for a position, evaluation processes can be gamed and exploited, and in some cases you also have unscrupulous individuals who falsify their credentials in a way that can't be corroborated in a timely manner.

[mziru]

Not exactly. At least at UC, there are non-salaried "Researcher" titles for this purpose. This posting described teaching duties (though it's been taken down now.)