Information for Researchers, No. 76 | October 27, 2020

New Open Access Funding Programme

Support for the open access transformation / Programme documents are now available

Support for the open access transformation / Programme documents are now available

The Joint Committee of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) has adopted a new funding programme which is aimed at scientific institutions. The funding can be used to cover the costs associated with open access publications by members of the institutions.

The purpose of the funding is to support the open access transformation by restructuring financial flows. It also serves to promote greater transparency with regard to the quantity and costs for publications which are published in open access.

As part of the funding programme, institutions can request funding in order to centrally fund the open access publication of scientific articles and books. Specific regulations apply, e.g. there is no funding for hybrid APCs for which no transformative agreement exists. The programme supports a variety of open access publication formats and is based on a concept of quality assurance which includes forms of scientific evaluation that occur after a piece has been published (e.g. post-publication peer review).

Researchers may continue to use the publication funds made available to them through their DFG-funded research projects. Researchers themselves however do not need to pay for open access if their institution (generally via the library) has provided central funding for open access transformative agreements or other open access publishing opportunities. Researchers are recommended to enquire with their library about central management structures for any costs related to open access publications.

The programme has been established on a temporary basis for the period 2021 to 2027.
The deadline for applications is 4 May of every year.

Further Information

Funding options for open access publishing costs:

Contact: