HR4RS stamp
Nora Fernandez Fernandez
Tomorrow, Thursday May 11, the URJC International Doctoral School celebrates the selection phase of the 'Thesis in 3 minutes' contest. The event will take place in the classroom of Departmental II of the Móstoles Campus, throughout the morning.
As its name indicates, the contest consists of explaining the doctoral thesis in the established time, through a simple and intelligible language that is capable of reaching the general public. That is the main challenge for students, to bring their work as researchers closer to the rest of society.
In this first selection phase, each of the participating universities chooses a student by branch of knowledge (Arts and Humanities, Sciences, Health Sciences, Social and Legal Sciences, and Engineering and Architecture). The selected students will attend the final phase, which will take place at the Polytechnic University of Madrid on June 2, 2023.
In addition to the Polytechnic, the University of Alcalá, the Autonomous University, the Complutense University and the Rey Juan Carlos University are the other convening institutions, all of them from Madrid.
According to Pilar Abad Romero, director of the URJC International Doctoral School, "26 students have enrolled this year, less than last year."
When asked about the experiences of other years, Abad assures that "this contest encourages the development of fundamental skills and abilities for a researcher and that they will be very useful in the future." In addition, "the contest contributes to bring the work of researchers closer to society and promotes, among researchers in training, the interest in popularizing and disseminating science."
Last year, the URJC broke its record in the contest, winning 3 of the 5 existing categories. The director of the EID wanted to rescue the testimony of one of those winners, Sergio Cavero, who encouraged "all doctoral students to participate in the contest and consider what their research is for and what they spend their time on."