Competition

LuxDoc 3MT 2021

What is a 3MT competition?

The Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) competition celebrates the exciting research conducted by doctoral candidates. Developed by The University of Queensland (UQ), 3MT cultivates students’ academic, presentation, and research communication skills. The competition supports their capacity to effectively explain their research in three minutes, in a language appropriate to a non-specialist audience.

If you are a doctoral candidate in Luxembourg, now is your chance to tell the world about your research, practice your all-important presentation skills, and possibly be honored with a prize for your work!

What can contestants win?

After the submission deadline, an interdisciplinary panel of judges will evaluate the submissions and choose a first place and two runner-ups, who will receive prizes*. Meanwhile, the videos will be shared on LuxDoc Facebook page so that the social media community can vote for their favorite video by putting a like, with the 2 winners of the vote receiving the “People’s choice” prizes*. The prizes are not cumulative, which means that in case one of the videos with the most likes will be also among the ones selected by our jury, only the biggest prize will be given. The prize will then be given to the video with the third biggest number of likes and so on…

  • The first place will receive a prize of 1000 €
  • Two runner-ups will receive a prize of 750 €
  • The first “People’s choice” will receive a prize of 500 €
  • The second “People’s choice” will receive a prize of 300 €

The prizes are generously sponsored by DESCOM, the University of Luxembourg, LIH, LIST and LISER. Note that depending on your doctoral school, you might even be able to apply for ECTS for your science communication effort!

Who can participate?

Anyone who is an active doctoral candidate (i.e. PhD student) at the submission deadline and who is working in the country of Luxembourg can participate. Please submit the video using your institution’s email. No membership of LuxDoc required but is kindly encouraged. Note that you are no longer considered an active doctoral candidate once you have defended your thesis.

How do I participate?

If you are eligible to participate, you must

  1. Record a three-minute video of yourself presenting your research in English (you can make a slide and add it to the video, as described below)
  2. Upload your video to YouTube,
  3. Download and sign this GDPR form allowing LuxDoc to post your name and video together on this website,
  4. Send the forms and the link to the video from your institution email to 3MT@uni.lu.

We must receive the video before noon (12.00 CEST) of July 4, 2021. After that, all the videos are posted here on the LuxDoc website and the judges will select the winners according to the criteria below. For what concerns the “people choice” prizes, only the votes received before noon (12.00 CEST) of September 10 2021 will be considered. After that, the videos will remain available on LuxDoc Facebook page but the counter will not be updated.

The winners will be announced after the summer break (around the first week of September). It is very important that your email contains a video link and the filled GDPR form.

Only one video can be submitted per person. Note that by submitting you accept the terms and conditions.

Rules

We are following the 3MT rules suggested by the University of Queensland, which founded the event. Note that there are some variations for the online version.

  • The video must be of you presenting. No other sound or video effects are allowed.
  • The video must be filmed from a static position and one camera angle against a plain background.
  • No additional props (e.g., costumes, musical instruments, laboratory equipment) are permitted.
  • Presentations are to be spoken word (e.g., no poems, raps, or songs).
  • The video must be no longer than three minutes long. All longer videos are strictly disqualified with no exceptions.
  • The decision of the adjudicating panel is final.
  • The video and slide must be presented in English.
  • A single static PowerPoint slide is permitted and is NOT mandatory. No slide transitions, animations, or ‘movement’ of any description are allowed. You are allowed to cut to and from your slide in the video. If you do, it can only take up a total of one minute of the video. The video cannot be just your slide. If you want to include a slide in your presentation, but don’t know how to do it, a good starting point can be found here.

Judging Criteria

Each competitor will be assessed on the judging criteria listed below by an interdisciplinary panel of judges. Each criterion is equally weighted and has an emphasis on the audience.

Comprehension & 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 & Communication
  • Did the oration make the audience want to know more?
  • Was the presenter careful not to trivialize or generalize 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 presence, vocal range and prosody while maintaining a steady pace?
Audio/video
  • Video style and recording quality should be understandable, but will not be considered further in the judging.

Resources

Uploading to YouTube is simple, instructions can be found here. A tip: You can set it to be “unlisted”, then it won’t show up when people search on YouTube, but we can still show it on our webpage.

To get inspired and find helpful resources, check out the Queensland 3MT website, the Pittsburgh online 3MT and this guide on how to hold a virtual presentation. These videos from other 3MT competitions can be helpful as well:

If you have any other questions contact luxdoc@uni.lu.

We thank our sponsors:

The Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) is an academic research communication competition developed by The University of Queensland (UQ), Australia.

By submitting an entry to the competition you accept the above terms and conditions. The LuxDoc committee reserves the rights to decide in any cases of doubt as well as the right to change terms, conditions and rules at any time without warning. In case of such a change, any previous submission must accept the changes to be eligible for the competition. All decisions by the committee are final.

*The awarding of any monetary prize is conditional on the acceptance of the sponsoring institutions. LuxDoc does not take responsibility for any non-payment of prizes for any reason.