The Unibo Competition

In 2008 the University of Queensland in Australia held a competition called ‘Three Minute Thesis’ (http://threeminutethesis.org/start-3mt) in which PhD candidates explained their research to an ‘intelligent lay audience’ in three minutes with only one slide. In the following years, the 3MT Competition has developed into a global phenomenon and has been held at multiple institutions across the world. In June 2017, the Coimbra Group held its first 3MT final during the annual General Assembly at the University of Edinburgh.

Nine years ago, the University of Bologna joined the Coimbra Group 3MT Competition. Each university participating to the Coimbra Group 3MT Competition selects their best candidate and sends a video recording of their presentations to the Doctoral Studies Working Group (DS WG). The winners of each university will compete against other candidates at the European level. The DS WG will select 3 finalists  among them to participate in the live Final Competition at the CG Annual Conference!

1st Round

The competition will take place on 25 February 2026.

A jury, supported by audience votes, will select the top three presentations from 10 finalists. A winner will be chosen from these three, who will have the chance to advance to the second round.

2nd Round

The video of the winning presentation will be submitted to an independent Coimbra Group jury, which will select three finalists from among the winners at each participating university in the international Coimbra Group Three-Minute-Thesis Competition.

The selected finalists will compete in the final round on 18 June 2026, hosted at the University of Granada.

For more information on the 2026 Coimbra Group 3MT Competition, click here.