{"id":2573,"date":"2016-05-10T16:18:42","date_gmt":"2016-05-10T06:18:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/?post_type=wimr_news&p=2573"},"modified":"2025-09-30T09:37:56","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T23:37:56","slug":"new-westmead-research-fellowship-supports-early-and-mid-career-researchers","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/news\/new-westmead-research-fellowship-supports-early-and-mid-career-researchers\/","title":{"rendered":"New Westmead research fellowship supports early and mid-career researchers"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Western Sydney Local Health District (WSLHD) has recognised the importance of medical research in the Westmead precinct by majority funding two new fellowships to support early and mid-career researchers.<\/p>\n

\n

\"WSLHD
WSLHD Research and Education director Emeritus Professor Stephen Leeder (centre) presents Dr Zheng (left) and Dr Geevasinga<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/figure>\n

The Westmead Fellowship will provide up to three years\u2019 salary support for researchers to undertake cutting edge medical research at Westmead Hospital and The Westmead Institute for Medical Research.<\/p>\n

WSLHD Research and Education director Emeritus Professor Stephen Leeder said, \u201cThe initiative aims to support outstanding applicants to build a solid career foundation, establish their own research group at Westmead and go on to attract future funding from external sources.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fellowships have been created in response to the currently difficult government funding environment, which has seen success rates for NHMRC grant applications plunge to below 14 per cent.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Westmead Fellowship, which is also financially supported by the University of Sydney and The Westmead Institute, will ensure the strengthening of existing research themes at Westmead Hospital and The Westmead Institute.\u201d<\/p>\n

Executive Director of The Westmead Institute Professor Tony Cunningham said, \u201cWe welcome and appreciate this great initiative from the WSLHD, which comes at a time when funding to medical research is competitive and hard to come by.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Executive Director of The Westmead Institute Professor Tony Cunningham said, \u201cWe welcome and appreciate this great initiative from the WSLHD, which comes at a time when funding to medical research is competitive and hard to come by.\u201d<\/p>\n

Recipients of this year\u2019s Westmead Fellowship are The Westmead Institute\u2019s Dr Gouping Zheng and Westmead Hospital\u2019s Dr Nimeshan Geevasinga.<\/p>\n

Dr Zheng, who is a senior scientist at the Institute\u2019s Centre for Transplant and Renal Research, is heading a research project investigating the treatment of kidney fibrosis to prevent kidney failure.<\/p>\n

The Westmead Fellowship will allow him to continue his work developing novel therapies to prevent fibrosis and slow the progression of kidney disease.<\/p>\n

Dr Geevasinga completed his PhD in neurology at Westmead Hospital.<\/p>\n

The fellowship will enable Dr Geevasinga to build on his PhD research into motor neuron disease, also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), as a postdoctoral fellow.<\/p>\n

The awards were presented by Prof Leeder at the Westmead Research Leads forum last month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Western Sydney Local Health District (WSLHD) has recognised the importance of medical research in the Westmead precinct by majority funding two new fellowships to support early and mid-career researchers. The Westmead Fellowship will provide up to three years\u2019 salary support for researchers to undertake cutting edge medical research at Westmead Hospital and The Westmead […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":2574,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}}},"categories":[19],"class_list":["post-2573","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cat-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/2573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}