Apply for Funds
Open access grants managed by the library.
UKRI open access grant
UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) provide the university with a grant to support the cost of open access publishing for articles arising from research funded by the AHRC, BBSRC, EPSRC, ESRC, MRC, NERC and STFC. If your paper acknowledges a UKRI funder you can apply for open access funding.
Wellcome Trust open access grant
The Charity open access fund (COAF) has now closed. Researchers funded by the Wellcome Trust can now apply for a new open access block grant provided by the trust.
Apply for Wellcome Trust funds
Cancer Research UK open access grant
Cancer Research UK (CRUK) now provide a separate block grant to support the open access publishing costs of their researchers/
British Heart Foundation open access grant
The British Heart Foundation now provide the university with a block grant to support eligible costs for funded researchers. However, these funds are limited and payments can only be made subject to availability. Please do not assume funds will be available for your publication unless this has been confirmed by the open access team.
Costing open access in grant applications
Other funders including the NIHR, European Commission, Blood Cancer UK and Parkinson’s UK allow open access costs to be included in grant applications. Where open access publication costs are permitted by the funder, the university statement on open access recommends projects include £6,000 as a directly incurred cost at application. To help with estimating costs for applications, a study of open access charges paid by UK universities in 2016 reported the average fee for an article was £1,905, with a median value of £1,800.
University funds for open access
The university does not have dedicated funds for open access other than the funder grants listed above. However, where no other funds are available to authors and under exceptional circumstances, open access charges may be paid by an author's academic unit or faculty. Requests will be considered on a case by case basis. If you are not sure who to contact in your unit, please contact the open access team
Open Access without costs
Your paper may be eligible for open access without additional cost to you through one of the transformative agreements we have with publishers. Please be aware that the eligibility criteria for these agreements vary and that the agreements the university participates in are subject to change. Some agreements limit the number of papers that may be made open access. Where this applies papers with corresponding authors who are an honorary member of staff, visitor, or otherwise affiliated with linked organisations (eg NHS trusts) will only be approved if specific funding is acknowledged
Most publishing agreements allow authors to make subscription articles open access without cost via the green route. All you need do is upload the accepted manuscript to MyImpact and we will make this open access in ePrints in accordance with publisher terms. This will typically meet the open access requirements for REF and of many research funders.
Deposit in ePrints via MyImpact