Research Councils Block Grant Requests
***Please note UKRI have changed their Open Access Policy. The new policy takes effect for journal articles, review articles and conference articles accepted on or after April 1st 2022.
UKRI have allocated a block grant to the University to contribute towards the cost of Open Access (OA) publishing of UKRI funded research articles. This is centrally managed by the Open Access Manager in Research, Innovation and Knowledge Exchange (formerly Research and Enterprise).
University UKRI researchers, including UKRI-funded PhD students and Innovate UK KTP Associates, are eligible to apply to this fund if:
- their peer-reviewed journal article, review article or conference article is the result of research funded by UKRI/RCUK (including Innovate UK, but excluding UK Space Agency), AND
- the author is employed by the University of Huddersfield (including honorary titles but excluding visiting titles), AND
- the University of Huddersfield is listed as the lead research organisation or a partner research organisation on UKRI's Gateway to Research portal
If you have any questions over your eligibility to access this grant, please contact the Open Access Manager: oa@hud.ac.uk or telephone the Open Access Manager on Microsoft Teams 01484 256 796.
Please ensure you read the requirements below before completing the APC Request Form:
- The journal should be compliant with the UKRI Open Access policy (for journal articles, review articles and conference articles accepted from April 1st 2022).
- The Open Access Manager will check all applications and inform you if the journal does not meet UKRI requirements for use of the block grant fund, however authors should contact the Open Access Manager oa@hud.ac.uk to confirm the journal they plan to submit to is compliant well before the manuscript is submitted to a journal.
- Articles should be published under a Creative Commons CC-BY license, which many publishers already offer. All other CC license types are non-compliant with the UKRI OA policy unless you have applied for and received permission directly from UKRI to implement a CC BY-ND license.
- All in-scope publications should acknowledge UKRI funding.
- All in-scope publications should contain a data-access statement regarding how any underlying research materials, such as data, samples or models, can be accessed or a short statement on why data cannot be made publically available.
- At least 1 author on each in-scope publication should be affiliated to the University of Huddersfield.
- The block grant will be allocated on a first come first served basis.
- The block grant may not last the whole year, so please always contact the Open Access Manager via oa@hud.ac.uk BEFORE agreeing to pay APC charges with the publisher or requesting invoices. Notice will be issued when/if the block grant is close to being spent.
- Only APC fees that have received approval by the Open Access Manager will be paid.
- For authors looking to publish their in-scope publications via the free of charge Green Open Access route, there are many extra requirements not listed here. If you would like more information, please contact the Open Access Manager via oa@hud.ac.uk.
- UKRI-funded PGRs who are publishing as sole authors, OR are publishing with co-authors who are all external to the University of Huddersfield AND are requesting an APC amount greater than £1000, should contact the Open Access Manager via oa@hud.ac.uk BEFORE signing any publisher agreements.
Information about publisher policies and CC license types is available on the Creative Commons website and the SHERPA RoMEO website.
Please note: The fund cannot be used to pay additional length charges or extra charges for colour images
How do I request payment?
- Complete the attached form -ARTICLE PROCESSING CHARGE REQUEST FORM
- Send the completed form to the Open Access Manager via oa@hud.ac.uk
- Wait for a notification that the request has been approved BEFORE signing any publisher agreements
- Only once approval has been granted, should authors request invoices.
- Approved applicants will be informed where to send invoices.
- It is against University of Huddersfield policy to fax credit card details or pay invoices via email or PayPal. Authors should request that publishers set up the invoice so that it can be paid electronically via credit card using a secure link to the publisher’s electronic payment system.
