Unity Workforce Grant

A request for proposal for immersive training programs focusing on the career pathway development for RT3D developer/XR creator talent. 

Workforce development: Innovating programs, courses, and offerings to equip students with the skills needed to create for the metaverse, effectively increasing and diversifying the global talent pool for real-time 3D creator jobs.

Any legal entity, company, institution, or nonprofit organization that provides training (courses, degrees, apprenticeships, bootcamps, labs, innovation centers, etc.) in XR/real-time 3D development skills is encouraged to apply.

Special consideration will be given to institutions that serve underrepresented and/or underserved students.

We encourage projects and programs in all stages to apply, whether your program is prototyping an idea to be developed or is already established with existing impact outcomes.

Yes. The countries and individuals the United States has introduced sanctions against are prohibited from applying. At present, this includes: the CRIMEA REGION OF UKRAINE, CUBA, IRAN, NORTH KOREA, SUDAN, and SYRIA.

Grant recipients are selected using the following criteria:

• Career development: The project team explains their training model and curriculum to ensure graduates are job-ready upon program completion. They also identify hiring partners/potential employers for program graduates.
• Inclusion: The program reaches learners from underrepresented populations.
• Impact: The program has high demand and sets clear goals for the number of learners that will complete the training over the course of the grant period.
• Viability: The program shares a clear timeline, broken down by stages: planning, training, and reporting. 

All applications must be submitted in English. We work with creators with varying levels of English ability. Videos or trailers in a language other than English must have subtitles. The project itself does not need to be in English; however, there must be subtitles or translations provided (if applicable) so that judges can properly review.

Projects will be selected by Unity and Jobs for the Future (JFF), a partner of Unity on this Workforce Grant. Employees and/or representatives of Unity and JFF will serve as judges on this open call.

Unity will provide selected grant recipients a maximum amount of US$200,000 from Unity’s Charitable Fund.

You will receive an automatic confirmation email, and all applications submitted will be reviewed. If we need additional information, we will contact you directly. Only applicants that advance to the final round or are selected to receive the Workforce Development Grant funding will be notified. We will hold virtual interviews for finalists at the end of July 2023. Grant recipients will be notified in the late summer/early fall 2023.

If your application is selected, you will receive your grant funds by the end of September 2023 (subject to delays if the grant recipient does not complete all funding processes in a timely manner).

Unity partners with Tides Foundation to manage the Unity Charitable Funds for charitable purposes. If the project created by your team is selected, Unity will recommend a charitable grant to your organization from the Unity Charitable Fund at Tides Foundation. After receiving the recommendation, Tides Foundation staff may reach out to your organization during the Foundation's due diligence process to collect additional information about your organization or proposed project. This process can take anywhere from two to six weeks and is a secondary review process.

The dates and times below are indicated in Pacific Time. Please give yourself ample time to submit in case you run into issues during the submission process.

Opens: Monday, April 17, 2023, at 12:00 am PT

Closes: Friday, June 2, 2023, at 11:59 pm PT

Unfortunately, we are not able to grant extensions once the application window has closed.