Curating a competition on UNI means writing the brief that entrants respond to. You are paid 10% of what the competition collects, and you keep ownership of what you wrote.
What a curator does
A curator writes the brief: the challenge itself, the context around it, what entrants are asked to produce and what the jury should look for. UNI runs everything else, from the submission portal to the evaluation and the results.
You do not need to be a UNI member to curate, and curating is separate from jury work. A curator may also sit on the jury of their own competition.
What you are paid
You receive 10% of the registration fees or sponsorship collected for your competition, paid at the end of the quarter in which it is collected.
If a competition collects $5,000 in entry fees, the curator's share is $500.
What that comes to in practice depends on two things nobody can promise in advance: how many people enter, and whether the competition attracts a sponsor. A brief on a narrow topic with fifty entrants pays less than a broad one with several hundred.
Payment is arranged by the UNI team. There is no self-serve payout screen for curators, so expect to be contacted rather than to find a button.
Who can curate
You need at least 15 years of industry experience. An academic background helps but is not required, and specialisation in a particular subject counts for more than breadth.
Start by completing your public profile, then apply through the curator page. The team reviews each application by hand.
Who owns the brief
You own the brief you wrote. UNI holds a non-exclusive right to publish it, promote it and re-run it on the platform.
While your brief is published on UNI, we ask that you do not republish the same brief on another platform, in print or in any other medium without agreeing it with us first. That restriction covers the brief as written for UNI. It does not restrict your underlying ideas, your research or your professional work, and it does not stop you writing about the same subject elsewhere.
If you want to relaunch the same competition on UNI later, you can, at a 10% royalty.
The full wording is section 3.5 of the Terms of Service. Anything agreed in writing with UNI for a specific competition takes precedence over it.
Your brief is public
The brief is visible to everyone, not only to entrants. It stays on the competition page after the competition closes, which is usually what a curator wants: it is a piece of published work with your name on it.
If something is unclear
Write to contact@uni.xyz. Curating is a small programme handled by people rather than by automation, so a question about a specific competition is best asked directly.