The Open Access Fund assists faculty members to pay fees, sometimes known as article processing charges (APCs), associated with publishing in open access books and journals. It is open to researchers at UBC Vancouver and Okanagan in SSHRC-aligned disciplines.
The Open Access Fund supports the costs of making books or journal articles openly accessible, that is, accessible without subscription or paywalls. Open access is a requirement of many funding agencies and enables wide dissemination of university research.
An individual author or individual work is only eligible to receive a set maximum award amount of $4000 through the Open Access Fund each academic year. Authors are responsible for paying publishers any amount beyond this limit. A total of $75,000 is available through the fund each academic year.
The fund aims to support research and scholarship aligned with SSHRC’s General Guidelines for Eligibility of Subject Matter for SSHRC and Eligibility of Applications Related to Health.
Starting February 4, 2026, the Fund will take applications any time during the academic year until it is exhausted, or until August 31, 2026). Available support for each application depends upon funding and is not guaranteed.
Eligibility
Applicants must be at UBC Vancouver or UBC Okanagan and must be the primary (submitting or corresponding) author of the work to be published. They should be
- tenure-track faculty at UBC Vancouver or UBC Okanagan in the Research Stream or Educational Leadership Stream,
- librarians and archivists with confirmed/confirmation-track appointments, and
UBC authors who are not a primary (submitting or corresponding) author are not eligible, and should encourage the work’s primary author to seek alternate funding sources. Term, visiting, affiliate, honorary and emeritus faculty; lecturers, postdoctoral fellows and research associates; staff members; and students are ineligible.
Submitted works
To be eligible to receive support from the Open Access Fund, works must be:
- peer-reviewed publications (journal articles, books, book chapters)
- already accepted for publication at the time of applying for the fund, and
- related to research areas supported by a SSHRC grant or align with the SSHRC subject-matter eligibility guidelines.
Other subject disciplines are ineligible and should seek alternate funding sources. Research funded solely by NSERC and/or CIHR is ineligible.
Applicants can receive a maximum of $4,000 per academic year but must submit separate applications for each accepted work for which they are requesting funds that year. Applications to the Open Access Fund must be made before any payments are made against publisher invoices.
Discounts and other funding
Funds will be awarded only when no other (grant, departmental) funding is available to the author for the purpose of publishing in open access journals etc. Applicants should exhaust other funding sources that support open access charges before applying. Most funding agencies, including SSHRC, include open access charges among eligible grant expenses.
When applying to the Open Access Fund, applicants should also consider and account for discounts already available through UBC Library’s memberships with prominent open access publishers as listed on the UBC Library site.
- See: requesting funds for open access charges in your grant applications
- See: UBC Library Open Access & Publication Discounts
Failure to apply eligible discounts or grant funding may delay application results and payment to publishers.
Other campus funds, such as CTLT’s SOTL Dissemination Fund or Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies’ Graduate Student fund should also be considered, where applicable.
Requests exceeding $4,000 CAD
The Fund will only pay a maximum of $4,000 CAD, regardless if the fee to be paid exceeds that amount. Applicants must arrange to pay any remaining balance using a separate source of funds (usually via payment originating in the Department) and identify this source in their application.
How to apply
To apply to the Open Access Fund, the applicant must log in to VPRI’s online application system, UBC Research + Innovation Apply using their campus wide login (CWL), and follow the instructions provided.
Applications will be accepted until the funds are exhausted or August 31, 2026.
Applicants should consider/exhaust other sources of funding before applying to this fund.
Application Components
- Applicant information
- Information about the work
- Letter of acknowledgement signed by the Department/Unit Head
- Copy of the publisher invoice or journal payment request
Important: Please ensure the following invoicing standards are met to avoid delays in processing. Invoices must:- Be billed to the applicant, with the University of British Columbia (UBC) included in the billing address.
- Include the title of the work and specify that the charge is for ‘open access’.
- Include an invoice number and sufficient publisher payment information.
Contact
Stacey Herzer
Manager, Internal Research Competitions
Office of the Vice-President, Research & Innovation