Research fellowships result best ever

UNSW’s best-ever Fellowship result demonstrates the relevance and application of the University’s medical research, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) Professor Les Field says.

UNSW received 10 Fellowships worth more than $7.6 million – the highest amount nationally – in the prestigious National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC)-funded scheme.

Beginning in 2015, the nine Research Fellowships and one Practitioner Fellowship are designed to support researchers with strong career track records, many with a proven ability to translate research into commercial, health practice or policy outcomes.

“UNSW received the highest level of funding in the country and had the highest success rate for proposals, which shows the real-world relevance of our health and medical research,” Professor Field said.

“Making groundbreaking discoveries in the lab and being able to help translate those discoveries into new treatments that actually benefit people is what medical research is all about.”

“I congratulate our 10 fellowship recipients who are some of the best minds in the country.”

To be successful, the Fellows must be in the top 10% of their fields and submit highly innovative research proposals with the potential to have a transformative impact on a disease, condition or the health system.

“NHMRC Research Fellows push the boundaries of research,” CEO Professor Warwick Anderson said.

The Practitioner Fellows are active clinicians and public health or health services professionals who continue to work with their patients and communities throughout their research. 

The successful UNSW recipients include: 

• Professor Simon Gandevia ($911,915) for research into treatments for motor impairment, a common outcome in ageing, stroke, multiple sclerosis and spinal injury.  

• Professor Glenda Halliday ($911,915) to identify and understand the pathobiology of non-Alzheimer dementias and degenerative motor syndromes, which mainly affect people in their prime. 

• Professor Richard Bryant ($911,915) to achieve a paradigm shift in Indigenous mental health research by conducting the first programmatic research that bridges the divide between mainstream and Indigenous research agendas.  

• Associate Professor Bettina Meiser ($750,810) to investigate genetic sequencing for cancer – an advancement that is revolutionising disease prevention and care by enabling more accurate diagnosis of disease susceptibility and targeted implementation of risk management in high-risk individuals.  

• Professor John Mybourg (Practitioner Fellowship, $551,426) to improve clinical outcomes in intensive care.

Read more about the fellowships on the NHMRC website.

Media contact: Steve Offner, UNSW Media, 02 9385 15 83