
Three Minute Thesis is a research communication competition developed by the University of Queensland, Australia.
There were 160 students in the first 3MT competition at the University of Queensland in 2008. Enthusiasm for the 3MT grew into a Trans-Tasman international competition involving 33 universities in Australia, New Zealand, and Fiji in 2010.
By 2011, the Trans-Tasman 3MT competition included 43 universities and, for the first time, regional 3MT events were held in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Hong Kong. It later spread to other universities in Asia. Currently, 3MT is held in over 900 Universities in more than 85 countries!
The first 3MT®competition held in Canada took place at the University of British Columbia in 2011. UM hosted their first competition in 2013. In 2014 the first national 3MT®competition was held. Today, there are dozens of Canadian universities and research institutes that host annual competitions, with winners moving onto one of three regional competitions (Western, Ontario, Eastern) before competing in the nation-wide competition, Canada’s 3MT®.