Final of the UK Three Minute Thesis (3MT® ) competition
Three Minute Thesis (3MT) challenges doctoral candidates to present a compelling spoken presentation on their research topic and its significance in just three minutes.
With just seven weeks to go until the final at the Vitae researcher development international conference, the 2014 finalists for UK 3MT have been announced.
Six finalists were chosen at this week’s semi-final at the University of York from a pool of talented researchers, each a winner of their local competition. The 2nd annual UK competition drew participants from 25 UK research institutions.
The prize of £3K to spend on public engagement activity for the overall winner is sponsored by RCUK, in line with principle 3 of the UK Concordat for Engaging the Public with research.
Janet Metcalfe, Chair and Head of Vitae and one of the semi-final judges said:
‘Public engagement is an important aspect of being a researcher and this prize represents a fabulous opportunity for the winner to build on their professional development’.
The ‘people’s choice’, to be chosen by Vitae conference participants, wins a 3-minute animation based around their research, sponsored by 99Scholars, a new academic event platform for researchers. 99Scholars, who are also offering all finalists a consultation on improving their online presence, aim to help researchers increase their research visibility. Find out about the names and topics of 2014 finalists and semi-finalists.
3MT is an academic competition developed by the University of Queensland, Australia. Its success has led to the establishment of local and national competitions in several countries. All participants are current doctoral candidates and are challenged to present an aspect of their research as an engaging verbal presentation in a maximum of three minutes: no props and just one slide allowed.
Judges confirmed for the 9th September final are: Prof Robert Anderson, former Director of the British Museum, Dr Iain Cameron, Head of Research Careers at RCUK, Ehsan Masood, science writer, journalist and the editor of Research Fortnight and Anne Morrison, Director of the BBC Academy.
