Three Minute Thesis returns for 2025-26!
Are you doing really interesting research? Do you want to tell people about it?
Then join the Doctoral College for this year’s Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) competition!
Three Minute Thesis - better known as 3MT - is back for another year, and we're excited to see how your presentations develop around your research topic. Read on for more info about what Three Minute Thesis is and how to get involved.
What is the Three Minute Thesis?
The Three Minute Thesis – better known as 3MT – is a national competition developed by the University of Queensland, Australia, run UK-wide by Vitae, in which doctoral students are challenged to present their research to a non-specialist audience in only three minutes using a single slide, no jargon, and no props.
What do I get out of it?
A lot! Being able to communicate your research to a broad audience is crucial – you need to do this to secure research funding, to work with stakeholders and the public, to ensure your research has the impact you want it to have.
Communicating with non-specialist audiences is as much a skill as communicating with specialist audiences. Maybe even more so! You have to take your very technical and specialised knowledge and turn it into information anyone can understand.
Participating in 3MT gives you the opportunity to learn to do this through supportive workshops and through presenting your research to the Queen Mary community – and potentially to a wider UK audience if you move onto the national semi-finals and finals.
How far into my research do I have to be?
It doesn’t matter! You can be just starting out or close to submitting – as long as you have something interesting you’d like to share and want to learn how to do so!
Please note that the Vitae 3MT regulations do not allow us to submit a finalist for the national competition who has submitted their thesis for viva prior to the end of our internal competition. If you are submitting your thesis before 21 May 2026, you can undertake the training but not participate in the competition.
Sounds great! What next?
To participate in the Queen Mary 3MT competition, you must complete both the introductory training and the accelerator training and you must be available to present at the in-person final on Thursday, 21 May 2026.
Key dates*:
- 3MT introductory training: 5 February, 11 February or 12 February 2026. Book your introductory training via the CPD system.
- 3MT Accelerator training: 4 March 2026
- Filming for online competition: late March
- Online competition: 15-24 April
- Queen Mary in-person final: 15:30-17:00 on 21 May 2026
*Full details about the competition will be provided in the introductory sessions.
If you have any questions about the 3MT, you can email the Doctoral College: doctoralcollege@qmul.ac.uk.