Each participant has three minutes to present his or her research, in plain language, to a non-specialist audience and a jury made up of researchers, journalists and business people.

The challenge: make your thesis topic easily understandable in clear, concise and convincing French or English – and with the help of only one slide! During the selections, participants are be filmed under competition conditions, and a multidisciplinary jury chooses finalists based on the videos, rating each participant’s performance according to the criteria in the official rules.

Participants also have a unique opportunity to take part in a day of training in public speaking given by media professionals. Their aim is to help you present your work effectively.

Prizes will be awarded to the top three presentations in the final. A special audience award will also be given.

The aim is also to inform the general public about the wide and exciting range of scientific research being carried out. Last but not least, it is an opportunity for participants to meet PhD students working in other fields and learn about their work.

Since 2016, the course is recognized by the EPFL Doctoral School. Participants in the MT180 competition may receive an ECTS credit towards their doctoral degree.

Conditions to receive credit are:

1. To participate in one of the training course in English or in French.
2. To participate in the selection process and obtain a score of 4/6 or higher.

Media professionals will provide advice on word choice, body language and intonation – the sort of feedback that will also prove useful in your future career.

Participation in one of the training session, in English or in French is one of the two conditions to receive an ECTS credit.

Courses are limited to 8 participants per day. Since places are limited to a maximum of 32 people, doctoral students nearing the end of their thesis are given priority.

At EPFL 14 PhD students are selected each year to participate in the EPFL MT180 Final Competition and present their Thesis in 180 seconds, either in French or in English. 

The jury for the final is made up of representatives from the scientific community and broader science world, the business world and the media.

Prizes

The best EPFL finalists able to express themselves fluently in French will have the opportunity to compete in the Swiss MT180 Final Competition, which takes place every year in May or June. 

“Ma thèse en 180 secondes (MT180®) ” competitions  are implemented in several French-speaking countries, namely in Canada, France, Belgium, Morocco and Switzerland.

MT180 was inspired by the English “Three Minute Thesis (3MT®),” which was first held at the University of Queensland, Australia in 2008. 

MT180 is the French equivalent of 3MT.