The Higher Ed XR Innovation Grant is funding awarded by Unity and Meta Immersive Learning for higher-education institutions working on education innovation and workforce development.

Education innovation: Innovating teaching and learning by developing high-quality educational experiences using real-time 3D technology.

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 XR creator jobs.

Higher-education institutions teaching or planning to teach XR development skills (courses, degrees, apprenticeships, bootcamps, labs, incubators, etc.) are encouraged to apply.

Special consideration will be given to institutions that serve underserved students.

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

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:

1. Inclusion – The leadership team is demographically diverse. The program primarily serves, uplifts, or includes beneficiaries from underserved groups.
2. Impact  – The program has wide reach in the number of students and/or educators engaged over the course of the grant period. 
3. Viability – The project’s scope is realistic and achievable. The right people and infrastructure are in place to accomplish the project’s goals.
4. Innovation – The project explores creative use of real-time 3D and immersive technology.

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 Meta employees and/or representatives internally, including Unity Charitable Fund and Meta Education team members, employees from across teams and verticals, and a final committee of judges.

Unity and Meta will make grant recommendations from a pool of $1,000,000 USD from Meta Education and Unity’s Charitable Fund, a fund of Tides Foundation.

No further action is required. You will receive an automatic confirmation email, and all applications submitted will be reviewed. If we need additional information, we will reach out to applicants directly. Only applicants selected to receive Higher Ed XR Innovation Grant funding will be notified.

Unity partners with Tides Foundation to manage Unity’s Donor Advised Fund (DAF) for charitable purposes. If the project created by your team is selected, Unity will recommend a charitable grant to your organization to 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 of issues with your submission process.

Opens: Monday, April 25, 2022 at 12:00 am PT

Closes: Wednesday, June 15, 2022 at 11:59 pm PT

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