Doctoral students are challenged to explain their research to the general public. The winner will go through to the final round to compete against representatives of other Catalan universities

For the third year, the Postgraduate and Doctoral School of the Universitat Rovira i Virgili and the Communication and Dissemination Unit (ComCiència) is holding the internal round of the competition “Explain your thesis in 4 minutes”, which is aimed at doctoral students who want the opportunity to explain their research to a non-specialist public. One of the participants in the internal round at the University will be selected to represent the URV at the competition “Present your thesis in 4 minutes” which is held by the Catalan Foundation for Research and Innovation (FCRi).

The internal round will consist of two phases. All doctoral students who sign up will participate in an internal selection process to determine the six proposals that will go through to the local final. The proposals will be selected by a committee. The six chosen participants during the knock-out phase must explain their theses before a panel of judges designated by the Postgraduate and Doctoral School of the URV. This will take place on Tuesday 5 May in Tarragona.

In the selection process the URV will award the students responsible for the top three proposals from the internal phase will free registration onto the URV doctoral programme. The person in first place will be the University’s candidate for the interuniversity competition held by the FCRi in Barcelona on Thursday, 4 June. The prizes for first, second and third place in the interuniversity round will be 3000, 2000 and 1000 euros respectively.

This initiative challenges doctoral students from any scientific discipline to explain their research in a maximum of 4 minutes to a non-specialist public using simple and easy-to-understand language. If you are interested in taking part, you must be a doctoral student in your second year or above and you must give your presentation in either Catalan, Spanish or English.

More information: http://www.comciencia.urv.cat/tesi-en-4-minuts/