3MT

What is 3MT?

3MT® competitions offer participants the opportunity to present their research clearly, successfully and concisely to a non-specialist audience in precisely 3 minutes! Through this experience, on the one hand, participants enhance their presentation and communication skills and, on the other, they help a wider audience understand the contribution of their research to society. The Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) is an academic research communication competition developed by The University of Queensland (UQ), Australia.

The 3MT CITY College Competition

The first 3MT competition took place at the University of Queensland in 2008 and has since been adopted by 900 different institutions across 85 different countries! CITY College is the first to have run the competition in Northern Greece and is for the first-time inviting individuals from other universities in the South East European region to participate!

Who can participate?

PhD candidates from the South East European region who are at least in their 2nd year of their PhD studies.

Awards

The 3MT offers a prize to the 3 best presenters. These prizes will be announced soon, so stay tuned…

3MT CITY College Competition 2023

The deadline for applications is March 31st , 2023
Please apply for the competition here

3MT CITY College Competition Training Sessions 2023

Two online workshops will be offered:

Preparing your presentation for the 3MT competition, 30th of January 2023, 16:00-17:00
Enhance your presentation skills, 20th of February 2023, 16:00-17:00

The rules

A single static PowerPoint slide is permitted. No slide transitions, animations or 'movement' of any description are allowed. The slide is to be presented from the beginning of the oration.
No additional electronic media (e.g., sound and video files) are permitted.
No additional props (e.g., costumes, musical instruments, laboratory equipment) are permitted.
Presentations are limited to 3 minutes maximum and competitors exceeding 3 minutes are disqualified.
Presentations are to be spoken word (e.g., no poems, raps, or songs).
Presentations are to commence from the stage.
Presentations are considered to have commenced when a presenter starts their presentation through either movement or speech.
The decision of the adjudicating panel is final.

The judging criteria

Comprehension and content

Did the presentation provide an understanding of the background and significance to the research question being addressed, while explaining terminology and avoiding jargon?
Did the presentation clearly describe the impact and/or results of the research, including conclusions and outcomes?
Did the presentation follow a clear and logical sequence?
Was the thesis topic, research significance, results/impact and outcomes communicated in language appropriate to a non-specialist audience?
Did the presenter spend adequate time on each element of their presentation - or did they elaborate for too long on one aspect or was the presentation rushed?

Engagement and communication

Did the oration make the audience want to know more?
Was the presenter careful not to trivialise or generalise their research?
Did the presenter convey enthusiasm for their research?
Did the presenter capture and maintain their audience's attention?
Did the speaker have sufficient stage presence, eye contact and vocal range; maintain a steady pace, and have a confident stance?
Did the PowerPoint slide enhance the presentation - was it clear, legible, and concise?

Why should you apply for the CITY College 3MT competition?

No one can attest to the benefits of participating in the 3MT competition than PhD students who have participated themselves!

Dr Elina Ketikidi – 3MT participant, CITY College 3MT competition, 2020

If you can’t explain it simple, you don’t understand it well enough.
- Albert Einstein

My participation at the Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition was a lifetime experience, an opportunity to evolve personally and to develop many different skillsets. Competing in the Three Minute Thesis (3MT) and receiving the second-place award was a great chance to build my public speaking and my communication skills. My participation on the 3MT was essential to the overall contribution of my study. Through the 3MT process I gain knowledge on how to distil the aim, the objectives and to effectively communicate the overall contribution of my PhD thesis into a 3-minute presentation. After participating at the 3MT competition I was able to receive feedback from the audience and identify any weaknesses on my research study, which was a tremendous milestone to the outcome and development of my PhD thesis. The 3MT experience helped me gain more self-confidence and be efficiently equipped to defend my research topic in clear and concise manner, even to a non-specialised to my topic audience.

If I was asked to do it again, I would definitely go for it 🙂

Dimitris Georgantzis Garcia – 3MT competition winner, CITY College 3MT competition, 2021

The 3MT competition was overall a very enjoyable and useful experience for me. It was useful because it provided me with a motivation to take a step back from the complexities, jargon and specificities of my research, and look at it from a more general perspective: What is the issue that my research addresses, why is it important to address and how is it being addressed? Admittedly, these questions will ultimately require a whole thesis to be answered in a scientifically sound manner. However, the exercise of abstraction that is required to condense all that information into a clear three-minute presentation and a single slide unquestionably helped me organise my work mentally. It is easy sometimes to get lost in the specifics of some analysis or argument in a PhD thesis, so it’s good to have a very clear picture of the reason behind everything, and the 3MT helped me with that. The experience was also enjoyable since it did not get tedious and confusing like putting together a longer presentation might. Instead, the process was very creative and conceptual, which I found quite pleasant. Of course, winning the competition gave it that extra bit of “enjoyment”, but the real gain here was the experience as a whole.

Vasileia Aristotelidou – 3MT participant, CITY College 3MT competition, 2020

I would like to thank CITY College for the 3MT! Like I said after my 3MT presentation, students and administration did amazing work! You’ve rallied some aspiring young scientists to come speak about their research, I really enjoyed that you were able to bring together a variety of 3min speeches, providing the audience with valuable insights of diverse research fields such as Psychology, Economics and Linguistics. Also, due to the fact that I was one of the students who presented, I had the chance to develop transferable skills such as writing concisely and presenting in an audience outside my research field. You’re definitely going somewhere great with this, and I can’t wait to see what’s next!