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The Doctoral College is delighted to announce that Ulster University will be running Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) academic competition for the first time.

An 80,000-word thesis would take 9 hours to present but with the Three Minute Thesis, PhD Researchers are challenged to describe their research and its significance, in non-specialist language, to a general audience in just three minutes.

To be eligible to participate, active PhD and Professional Doctorate (Research) candidates must have successfully passed their confirmation milestone (including candidates whose thesis is under submission) by the date of their first presentation.

Lisa Thompson, Doctoral Development Manager, Doctoral College adds:

“This is a fantastic opportunity for our PhD Researchers to engage in a competition that challenges them to communicate their thesis to a general audience and it allows them to showcase, in a bite-sized way, their research and its significance.

“The Doctoral College will provide help and support along the way and I would encourage our second and third year PhDs (and part time equivalent) to take part and see the benefits for themselves. It’s an excellent way of building confidence and fine-tuning their communication and presentation skills.

“3MT® also provides an opportunity for the wider academic community and other stakeholders to learn about the excellent PhD research that is ongoing at Ulster.”

Participants will compete in campus-based competitions during April and early May for a place in the Ulster University 3MT® Final on Thursday 7 June 2018, to be hosted at the Belfast campus.

The overall winner of the Ulster competition will then go through to the UK semi-final, which is an online event run during July and August. The six finalists will be announced by mid-August and will present at the UK final to be held at the 2018 Vitae Researcher Development International Conference in Birmingham on 17th September 2018.

The prize for the overall winner of the Ulster 3MT® competition is £750 with prizes for the runner up and all finalists, as well as a People’s Choice Award.

3MT® was first developed by the University of Queensland and is now a global initiative with up to 96 UK universities taking part this year in the Vitae national competition.

Entry to the Ulster University Three Minute Thesis heat stages is now open and the Expression of Interest entry form must be completed by Friday 2 February 2018. At this stage, only a proposed title is required.