Rin4min is a competition in which UPF doctoral students give a four-minute oral presentation of their research to a general audience.

The initiative, which is similar to others in place at benchmark institutions such as University of California, Los Ángeles (UCLA), is also modelled on the popular TED Talks series, its aim is to promote doctoral  students' communication skills whilst at the same time bridging the gap between science and scientific  knowledge and an  interdisciplinary audience unfamiliar with the topic. 

In short, the aim of the Rin4min project is threefold:

• To encourage UPF doctoral students in their training to include  the most effective skills and techniques  for clearly conveying and disseminating knowledge. 
• To raise awareness amongst tomorrow's researchers of the importance of transferring scientific knowledge to  a general audience, in keeping with the commitment of universities to public services. 
• To narrow the gap between the science, knowledge, and research pursued at the university and the public  at large. 

The presentations are judged based on their academic significance, clarity of expression, and the  speaker's capacity and ability to convey his or her ideas and generally hold the audience's attention. Participants may use  supporting audiovisual material, although primarly the presentation must be oral. 

UPF held the competition, a groundbreaking initiative in academia in Spain, for the first time in the  2014/2015 academic year. Since then, the University has launched various additional initiatives to help  participants hone their  oral presentation technique. A full list can be found in the "Get ready" section.