Grants of up to £1000 are available through the Library to support scholar led-open access journals.

Scholar led open access journals are publications which are managed and led by academics rather than commercial publishers or other institutions or bodies.

This funding for these grants comes from the University's Enhancing Research Culture fund, which is externally funded by Research England. Up to £1000 per journal can be claimed to use on expenses for new or existing journals such as (but not exclusive to); web design, launch events, or marketing.

To apply to the fund please click here to access the application form and return it to openaccess@lancaster.ac.uk.

Criteria for applying:

• Journals must be fully Open Access and make publications available via a Creative Commons licence.
• All Lancaster University staff and students can apply for the fund.
• Journals must have at least one Lancaster colleague currently associated with the journal (such as members of the editorial board).
• Funds to be given out on a first come first served basis but applications must be approved by the library.
• All funds must be spent by the 31st of July 2025.
• Subscriptions for services that run beyond the 31st of July cannot be paid for using this funding.

If you would like to have an informal conversation with a member of the Library Open Research team before applying, please email openaccess@lancaster.ac.uk.

Why have the library developed this fund?

Our ambition as a library is to go beyond being a service provider to work in partnership with our academic community. Our creation of this fund to support colleagues developing scholar led publications aligns with our library vision ‘to connect, innovate and include’ and to our long-standing commitment to Open Research.

The library held a workshop with colleagues running Scholar led publication initiatives in April of this year. During the workshop, attendees identified several costs associated with running these journals which can prohibit their development. We hope that this fund can support the long-term sustainability of these initiatives, which are often delivered entirely by volunteers, by supporting journals with startup costs and helping them to develop sustainable source of funding.

This funding for these grants comes from the University's Enhancing Research Culture fund provided by Research England. We are very grateful to the University's Research Culture team for providing this funding.