Find Funding for your Open Projects with the UTA Libraries

In working with the University’s faculty and students every day, we often hear amazing ideas for projects with open access outcomes and see a strong support for open publishing in general. We also see that there can be barriers to this kind of work, including lack of time, resources, and support. Staff across the Libraries are committed to facilitating the work of Open at UTA, so the UTA Libraries has established several funding opportunities to support these projects. These awards not only provide financial incentives but also establish a collaborative connection to Libraries staff and resources.  

UTA CARES Grant 

The UTA CARES Grant, established in 2017, provides funding to support faculty as they transition to affordable course materials including open educational resource (OER). In total, 43 grants have been awarded to faculty members who have adopted or created low- or no-cost options.  

The grant has multiple categories to support projects of different complexity levels. Grants include: 

• Affordable Adoption Stipends – to adopt existing no-cost or low-cost materials 

• OER Modification Grants – to remix and customize published OER 

• OER Creation Grants – to create and publish a unique OER 

OER Department staff partner on grant projects by assisting with material selection, providing copyright guidance, and supporting publishing processes through a publishing tool called Pressbooks or other open access platforms. Faculty members who are the instructor of record for a UTA course are eligible to apply for the UTA CARES Grant, which has two annual deadlines: October and March. UTA CARES Grants are specifically designed to impact required course materials, as these are often the barriers to student success.  

Open Initiatives (OI) Grant 

The Open Initiatives Grant was first launched in 2022 in order to expand the Libraries’ support of open publishing projects. While the UTA CARES Grant only funds projects related to a specific course, the OI Grant considers applications for any project that will yield an openly licensed outcome. What might this include?  

• Publishing an open educational resource that is not used as the primary textbook for a course. 

• Designing an assignment that incorporates open pedagogy principles and allows students to publish their work. See an example from Dr. Robin Jocius. 

• Creating unique curriculum-related resources that can be shared through the ResearchCommons. See an example by Art History alumnus J. Baar.

• You tell us! Innovative project ideas are welcome. 

The Open Initiatives Grant currently has rolling deadlines, and faculty, staff, and faculty-sponsored students are eligible to apply for funding.  

Article Processing Charge (APC) Fund 

As part of the Open Initiatives Grant funding, the Libraries also offers support for open access scholarly/research publishing by covering Article Processing Charge (APC) costs. Publishers charge authors an APC in order to release their work under an open access license, and costs can vary widely between journals and disciplines. These expensive APCs can be a significant factor in the decision to publish open access or behind a paywall. The stats show that publishing open access at least DOUBLES an article’s citation rate and impact! To make open access options more accessible to UTA-affiliated authors, the APC Fund will provide funding up to the total APC cost and make the article available through the ResearchCommons to boost visibility.  

APC funding can be requested by any UTA-affiliated author and is awarded on a rolling deadline until annual funds are depleted. For more information about the criteria and guidelines for APC funding, refer to the application form.  

The UTA Libraries is also committed to supporting more equitable open access scholarly publishing practices through a variety of open access agreements. The agreements provide a discount to authors on APC costs or cover the cost entirely. Stay tuned to the Open @ UTA Libraries blog series for more information about these agreements and how they can benefit UTA scholars and students.  

Other funding opportunities 

In addition to the grant opportunities focused on open publishing, the Libraries offers other awards to support innovation in teaching and student success. Many projects funded by these grants also have an open component, such as including project documentation, deliverables, and reports in the ResearchCommons. 

The Experiential Learning Faculty Facilitators Program (ELFF) supports faculty members who want to incorporate experiential learning into their course through the expertise, resources, and support of the Experiential Learning team.  

The Faculty Teaching in the Archives Grant provides support for faculty to enhance their courses by designing projects and assignments using primary source materials from the UTA Libraries Special Collections.  

We are so excited to be able to offer a variety of funding streams for projects related to open publishing and pedagogy, but we know that the field is growing and innovating all the time. If you have an idea for a project that doesn’t seem to fit within any of our established award criteria, let’s talk! Send an email to LIBRARY-OI-GRANT@LISTSERV.UTA.EDU with your questions and ideas, and we will help you find the support you need.   

The cover image for this blog post is "Mix of Money with Banner" by Jessica McClean, licensed CC BY 4.0. It is a derivative of "Mix of Money" by Pictures of Money, licensed under CC BY 2.0, and was modified to add the "Open @ UTA Libraries" banner.