Shanthi Ramanathan is Head of Research Impact and Evaluation at Hunter Medical Research Institute, a Conjoint Academic with the University of Newcastle, and Co-chair of the Research Impact Committee and Network of the Association of Australian Medical Research Institutes. She is recognised nationally as a leading impact practitioner who is passionate about building impact capacity, capability and culture across the research community, providing leadership in research impact through contributing to policy advice, and building the evidence base for impact planning and assessment. Since 2016, Shanthi has led the application of the Framework to Assess the Impact of Translational health research (FAIT) to Centres for Research Excellence, Translation Research Centres, research collaboratives, NHMRC, ARC, MRFF and philanthropically funded research projects and over ten NSW Health funding schemes. She is a sought-after speaker and facilitator on the value of applying a research impact lens to health and medical research. Since 2016, Shanthi has built research impact knowledge and capacity amongst over 3,000 academic and clinician researchers, policymakers and consumer representatives through 118 workshops, 44 one-on-one coaching and over 60 in-person and online presentations. She has been invited to speak about research impact at the Network for Advancing and Evaluating the Societal Impact of Science (AESIS) International Conference, to the Australian Council of the Deans of Science Research Leaders Network and at the Reframing Research Success workshop organised by the Australian Academy of Sciences. She has also led the development of a suite of publicly available, online resources to support the application of FAIT.

Dr Ramanathan is recognised nationally as a Key Opinion Leader in Research Impact. She serves as Co-chair of the AAMRI Research Impact Committee and Network and meets quarterly with the NHMRC team. Her expertise is also recognised by the Australian Academy of Science and the Australian Deans of Science.
Dr Ramanathan is one of a small number of academics in Australia applying a scientific lens to research impact planning, enablement and assessment. Her work spans individual research projects, large-scale programs and collaboratives, as well as competitive NSW and national grant schemes. Through this work, she is helping drive a shift in the research ecosystem toward stronger translation and more measurable impact.

Dr Ramanathan is leveraging five Indigenous-focused research grants, co-designed with Indigenous communities across every state and territory except Tasmania and the ACT, to advance a new and specialised application of the research impact lens for a nationally recognised priority population. Together with Indigenous research collaborators and community partners, she is co-designing an Indigenous-led approach to research impact that reflects community priorities, values and outcomes.