ORGANIZING SPONSORS

FRIENDS OF 3MT

The 2025 Bosnia & Herzegovina 3MT competition provides Bachelor, Masters & Ph.D. students with the opportunity to develop their academic, presentation, research communication and community leadership skills by explaining their research to a non-specialist audience. In 2020, we successfully organised the inaugural competition in which Ph.D. students were the competitors. Following the success of the 2020 edition, we organised an equally successful competition for undergraduate/masters student researchers in the homeland but also abroad. The 3MT competition will be held virtually to allow anyone from anywhere to compete. Not only will students benefit from this experience, but their respective universities/faculties will have the opportunity to showcase their research and researchers throughout the Bosnia & Herzegovina network, as well as open doors to new collaborations and networks for both researchers and supervisors.

Students will have a maximum of three minutes to deliver a compelling presentation of one of the following:

• Undergraduate, masters or Ph.D. dissertation (project) topic

• Any other project/topic that was/is the part of their undergraduate/master dissertation

• Any undergraduate or masters project (not just thesis) that has an element of research

• A special high school project

3MT is not an exercise in trivializing or ‘dumbing-down’ research but forces students to consolidate their ideas and crystalize their research discoveries.

The competition will be judged by a local & international panel consisting of industry and academic professionals.

The primary objective of the 3MT initiative will be to bring talented young high school students, undergraduate, masters & Ph.D. researchers with Bosnia & Herzegovina origins together under one umbrella with Bosnia & Herzegovina origins and give them a platform to:

• Engage with each other and a greater researcher community

• Build a community of young researchers and lay the foundations for future collaboration

• Disseminate important research information to the general public

• Build partnerships and friendships between collaborating organisations

• Showcase the global research excellence of Bosnia & Herzegovina

• Boost personal careers by gaining visibility and improving communication skills

• Connect prospective students with world-class researchers of Bosnia & Herzegovina origins

Participation in the 3MT competition will allow students to develop many different skills. Former competitors have commented on the value of their experience in a variety of areas. Some highlighted reasons why you should participate:

• Drastically improve your presentation skills and public speaking. Overcome public speaking anxiety and practice this important skill

• Learn how to or enhance your research communication ability. Learn to effectively explain the breadth and significance of complex research to a non-specialist audience

• Research perspective: Seeing how a research project fits within the larger picture is an important skill set. Distilling a research project into a three-minute general audience presentation allows participates to gain new perspectives on their research and helps contribute to their research and writing process

• Build a global network: get to know other competitors from around the world, discuss your research and build long term friendships

• Build key skills that are highly valued by employers in many sectors. These skills, such as public speaking and communication skills, can be featured prominently in application documents

• Undergraduate and Master students can present any project/assignment that was/is part of their official studies that contains elements of originality (literature surveys or reports without original/critical analysis are not appropriate). The kind of projects students can present will vary depending on a particular field of study (e.g. experimental or theoretical research, critical essay/report, artistic research)

• Ph.D. student should present their doctoral research work only

• High school students should present their project on a specific topic defined by BHFF program team.

• Presentations are to be done in English (the international language of research) or local languages (Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian). However: Preference should be English

• Presentations are limited to 3 minutes and competitors exceeding 3 minutes will not be allowed to compete

• A single static slide (Visual aid) is permitted (no slide transitions, animations or 'movement' of any description)

• The video can be recorded at home or another venue but must have only one camera angle filmed from a static position. You must be visible when presenting

• The 3-minute audio must be continuous – no edits breaks etc. (This is why you must be visible at all times)

• Presentations are considered to have commenced when a presenter starts their presentation through movement or speech

• No additional electronic media (e.g. sound and video files) are permitted within the video recording. The focus is on your presentation skills

• The decision of the judging committee is final

The judging is broken up into two sections with 5 criteria each. Each section is equally weighted. Each sections will be marked out of 5 (1 = weak, 5 = outstanding) and you will receive a score total out of 50. Judges will also provide comments for each presentation that can be used as justification for scores. Feedback can be provided to students upon request once the competition has concluded.

Comprehension and content

• Did the presentation provide an understanding of the background and significance to the research question being addressed, while explaining terminology and avoiding jargon?

• Did the presentation clearly describe the impact and/or results of the research, including conclusions and outcomes?

• Did the presentation follow a clear and logical sequence?

• Was the thesis topic, research significance, results/impact and outcomes communicated in language appropriate to a non-specialist audience?

• Did the presenter spend adequate time on each element of their presentation - or did they elaborate for too long on one aspect or was the presentation rushed?

Engagement and communication

• Did the oration make the audience want to know more?

• Was the presenter careful not to trivialise or generalise their research?

• Did the presenter convey enthusiasm for their research?

• Did the presenter capture and maintain their audience's attention? Did the speaker have sufficient stage presence, eye contact and vocal range; maintain a steady pace, and have a confident stance?

• Did the Visual Aid (slide/image) enhance the presentation - was it clear, legible, and concise?

Please note: Competitors *will not* be judged on video/ recording quality or editing capabilities (optional inclusions). However, your presentation must be audible. Judging will focus on the presentation, ability to communicate research to a non-specialist audience, and 3MT visual aid (slide/image).

Please note: As decided by the judging committee, if an applicant does not have a slide/visual aid, then the mark for the previous category will be doubled.

To be updated for 2025 iteration.

• Born in Bosnia & Herzegovina / Have Bosnian citizenship or be considered diaspora (For example, if you were born in the USA but draw roots from Bosnia & Herzegovina you are eligible). You are also eligible if you were born in Bosnia & Herzegovina but are undertaking your undergraduate, master studies or Ph.D. in another country or in BH

• Currently enrolled into an undergraduate/masters program OR completed studies in the last 12 months

• Any discipline is eligible

• Students who have not already presented the same or similar research in some of our previous 3MT competitions

• All high school students from Bosnia & Herzegovina are eligible to apply

We recognize the importance of this competition, its significance for research in the Bosnia & Herzegovina global community but also value your work and time.

Ph.D., Bachelor and Masters students will be judged separately.

There will be two types of awards. The first is judging conducted by an independent committee of academics and the second category of awards will be judged by the public.

Public voting is counted by the number of thumbs up on your YouTube video.

Undergraduate/Masters/Ph.D. total award pool is 12.800 BAM. 

Awards for Ph.D. candidates

1st Place - 3000 BAM

2nd Place - 2000 BAM

3rd Place  - 1000 BAM

Awards for Master candidates

1st Place - 1500 BAM

2nd Place - 1000 BAM

3rd Place  - 500 BAM

Awards for Bachelor candidates

1st Place - 1500 BAM

2nd Place - 1000 BAM

3rd Place  - 500 BAM

Awards (judged by the public via YouTube)

• Best overall presentation as judged by public (the presentation with the biggest number of likes on our YouTube channel) - 400 BAM

Best high school project

• The best presentation of a high school project - 400 BAM

Videos will be submitted by applicants via a website form (given below). The competitor should provide a link so that we can download your video. (please ensure your link is not set to private)

1. Your video submission can be in English or local languages (Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian).

2. If your video submission is in English, you will need to provide Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian closed caption or .srt file.

3. If your video submission is in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian, you will need to provide English closed caption or .srt file.

4. There will be an initial screening to see eligibility and quality upon which the videos will be uploaded to our YouTube channel.  

5. Videos will be uploaded on our YouTube channel and ready for full public sharing. This will be the primary hosting of videos.

In the Google form below, we must seek permission for the presentations to be publicly shared. Each competitor will need to make sure they check this with their supervisors and institutions. If selected into the finals, competitors will be notified. Their video shall be uploaded on the competition official YouTube channel.

• applications open: April 7th - MAY 4TH, 2025 

• judging process and voting period: MAY 19th - June 8th, 2025

• 3MT Awards Ceremony and result announcement: June 14th, 2025 (online)

• 3MT & Research Meetup Sarajevo: June 21st, 2025