Many research funders require that outputs acknowledging their support are made open access. In many cases they make funds available to support costs associated with publishing open access. The links below provide details of key funder policies and any funding they make available.
Research England continues to require that all published articles and proceedings submitted to the next Research Excellence Framework (REF) assessment are made open access. Find out more about the REF policy.
Researchers at the University have access to a growing number of publisher agreements. These typically allow manuscripts to be published open access, in compliance with all funder policies, without having to pay additional article processing charges (APC). Irrespective of your funder we recommend you check whether one of these applies before you submit any new manuscript.
Where authors have no access to funding for publication in Fully OA journals, the Library holds a limited Internal Open Access fund to pay APCs. It is available according to eligibility criteria on a case by case basis until the fund is exhausted. Find out more about publishing unfunded research open access.
Funders supporting open access via a block grant
Four funding bodies support their policies by allocating the University a block grant to enable researchers to comply with their OA policy. Researchers are only eligible to use these funds where they are publishing in compliance with the funder’s open access policy. The University may place further restrictions on how these funds can be used to prevent overspending.
Authors should note that some journals are not compliant with the requirements of the OA policies of these funders - Article Processing Charges (APCs) cannot be paid in such circumstances.
Other funder open access policies
Find more information about individual funder requirements below. Always check the terms and conditions of your own grant to ensure compliance.
If your funder is not listed, check the Open Policy Finder for guidance or contact the Open Access Team.
Contact us
Email openaccesspublications@contacts.bham.ac.uk