Romania hosts MT180 international final for first time

Romania is a first-time host, September 30 - October 3, to the international final of the Francophone scientific popularization contest 'My PhD Thesis in 180 Seconds' (MT180), an event organized by the Francophone University Agency/Agence universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF) and the University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine (USAMV) in Bucharest, CE Report quotes AGERPRES.

The challenge sees 20 young doctoral students from all over the world present their research topic, in French, to a diverse audience.

According to a release issued, the final is sponsored by the contestants' home institutions and the numerous partners in mass media and the economy.

'Selected following the national finals, 20 doctoral students from 20 countries - representing the diversity and excellence of French-speaking research - will accept a challenge that is both stimulating and difficult: to present their thesis topic in just three minutes, in a clear, concise and captivating manner, in front of an international jury and a large audience. Among them, 15 participants are supported by the AUF. All of them will vie for one of the three jury prizes or the much-coveted public award,' the release states.

The finalists come from: Austria, Benin, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Canada, Ivory Coast, Egypt, France, Ireland, Lebanon, Madagascar, Mali, Morocco, Mauritius, Moldova, Romania, Senegal, Chad and Thailand.

The MT180 competition brings together several French-speaking regions within an international Strategic Committee responsible for defining the vision and strategy of the science communication event, and also for organizing the international final each year. The members of the committee coordinate the national finals in their respective regions.

The 'My PhD Thesis in 180 Seconds' competition was created by the Association francophone pour le savoir (Acfas) in Quebec in 2012. In 2014, Acfas collaborated with the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and France Universités in France, the National Center for Scientific and Technical Research (CNRST) in Morocco, and the University of Liège in Belgium to enable these institutions to organize the competition in their respective territories. These collaborations led to the first international final of the competition, held in September 2014 in Montreal, Canada.

The AUF joined the MT180 International Committee in 2015. Each year, the AUF, through its offices in around 60 countries, actively participates in promoting the competition by organizing national finals in Francophone countries.

The Agence universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF), founded in 1961 in Montreal, Canada, is the largest global network of French-speaking higher education and research institutions, comprising over 1,000 members in 119 countries.

The AUF promotes cooperation, solidarity, and the development of French-language higher education and research through various initiatives like academic exchanges, joint research projects, and capacity-building. In Central and Eastern Europe, AUF has 139 members from 24 countries, of which 47 are from Romania.