If your question is not answered here, please contact the Awards team via immersive@iukbc.org.uk.
Ready to apply?
Click here to start your entry for the 2025 Immersive Tech Awards.
Watch the recording of our launch event on 16 January 2025.
Who can enter the Awards?
UK based undergraduates to postgraduates, aged 18 and above, are eligible to enter the five student categories.
The Career Breakout Showcase initiative is open to people who have upskilled outside of university programs but have little or no paid work experience in immersive tech.
Student categories
To enter one of the five student categories, you must be currently registered on a UK degree programme, undergraduate to postgraduate, and aged 18 or over. This will be verified via a supervisor letter of confirmation with recommendation included.
For team applications, please upload an eligibility letter for each member of the team. (Teams cannot enter the Career Breakout Showcase.) If your team included both students and non-students, only the students may enter.
Who is not eligible?
- If you’re a non-UK university student, you are not eligible – only UK university students are eligible to enter the Undergraduate to Postgraduate Competition 5 Categories
- If you’re not a degree student and not new to XR or just transitioning to XR from another industry, you are not eligible – the initiative supports emerging talent
- If you’re working with a university but not an enrolled degree student, you are not eligible.
The eligibility letter
You can ask for an eligibility letter from your supervisor specifying that you’re part of the programme. This is a standard letter that course supervisors will be used to issuing.
Example of eligibility letters format
“This is to confirm that [YOUR NAME] is enrolled on the 2025-2026 cohort of [COURSE NAME] at [UNIVERSITY NAME].”
In this letter, you may also wish to request to include a Recommendation, which can consist of a few sentences about you and the project you are working on.
What work is eligible?
Your project should involve XR (extended reality) in some form: this includes VR (virtual reality), AR (augmented reality), and MR (mixed reality)
Will multiple entries be accepted?
Applicants can submit to more than one category, but each application must be a different project applicable to that specific category. Each category requires a separate application tailored to address how your work applies to that category.
See the 5 Categories for details.
How do I submit an application?
Applications for the 2025 awards are open from 16 January 2025 and close on 16 March 2025. Click here to start your entry for the 2025 Immersive Tech Awards.
Where is my data stored?
The Innovate UK Immersive Tech Awards are using the Award Force platform and your data is securely stored within the European Union. The Innovate UK Immersive Tech Awards use Innovate UK Business Connect’s privacy policy.
Is there a fee to enter the Awards?
No, there is no entry fee.
What are the terms and conditions regarding Intellectual Property?
Applicants will retain any applicable Intellectual Property rights. Innovate UK Immersive Tech Awards does not take any ownership of your IP. In submitting the application, you declare that you have and continue to have all necessary rights, licences, permissions and consents to provide the content in your application.
Do projects need to be completed?
No, we understand projects may be at different stages and look to see what development can be demonstrated along with breadth, inspiration and creativity. In the Application Questions, applicants have the opportunity to give more details about completion and stage of production.
Structure of the video
Length should be 3 minutes max. Please introduce your project to the judges, show us why you’re excited about it and here’s the Video Brief details.
Pitches and time constraints: At the first stage, videos will be assessed at 3 minute max. Any entries reaching the Virtual Pitch Day will be asked for a pitch of similar length tbc, likely 3-5 minutes max.
Platform to use: We’re expecting to see a lot of games engines such as Unreal or Unity, but for UX or UI something like Figma might be more appropriate. No platform is ineligible, while we do expect to see an application into 3D/AR/VR/MR.
In-person working during internships
For 2024, it was expected that successful applicants would be in the London office of Arup at least a couple of days per week. Soluis is a remote company and arranges team in-person days. Internship details will be confirmed directly with the successful grand prize winners. Click here for details of the 2025 internships.
International students
You will only be eligible for the student internship grand prizes if your visa allows you to undertake paid work in the UK.
How are applications judged and winners selected?
You will have received an application submission confirmation email. Your application will move on to be judged if it meets all the eligibility criteria for the category you entered. Judging will take place after the 16 March application deadline.
Judging process for the undergraduate to postgraduate Competition submissions includes 3 stages:
1. Applications scoring by judging panel
2. Top two finalists selected in each of five categories by judging panel vote and deliberation with ten finalists announced on 8 April
3. Virtual Pitch Day on 23 April where ten finalists will pitch to the full judging panel on Zoom (3-minute pitches with 10-minute Q&A within 15-minute slots) and winner for each of the five Categories determined by judging panel vote and deliberation
Judges do not score or vote on any applications where there may be a conflict of interest. No judge from a university will be judging an application submitted from the same university.
Applications which did not meet the eligibility requirement will be notified after the 16 March application deadline.
Applications which did not make the finalists selection will be notified on or after 8 April when the ten finalists are announced.
How does Internship Prize Selection work?
Finalists from the five categories, including everyone from a finalist team, will be invited to individual interviews with the internship prize organisation. Finalists can choose not to participate in the interviews for the opportunity to win an internship grand prize. You do not need to be a category winner to be selected for an internship. Each internship winner is determined by the internship organisation or joint internship by the two organisations.
Judging process for the Career Breakout Showcase
Our judging panel vote and deliberate before announcing two finalists on 8 April. Finalists will be invited to showcase at the Awards Reception in London.
The Career Breakout award recognition, tailored mentoring and networking connections opens many opportunities to further XR career goals as a different path to an internship, such as residencies, project collaborations with studios, entrepreneurship and much more.