Block grants
If you receive funding from UKRI, Wellcome or British Heart Foundation, you may be able to apply for your article processing charge (APC) to be paid from a block grant. Cancer Research UK no longer offers a block grant, as of 1 April 2026.
Applications and payments for these block grants are administered by the University.
Block grants are finite resources. We endeavour to cover all eligible applicants through block grants, but it is not guaranteed. Only when an application has been approved via the Open Access Payment system are funds committed
Please apply to the block grant as soon as your paper has been accepted by the journal and wait for confirmation from the Bodleian Libraries team. Any delay may result in your application not being processed.
Before you apply
- Before you apply, please check the eligibility and other criteria below.
- Make sure you apply as soon as possible after your paper is accepted .
- These grants are from the specific funders listed below, they are only available to authors if the output is a direct result of that funding.
- The grants only support open access publishing of journal articles.
Conditions for applying for block grants
| Funder | Conditions |
|---|---|
| UKRI | Hybrid journals not covered; colour page charges not covered; other non-open access fees not covered; CC BY licence mandatory; Medical Research Council and Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council funded articles must be deposited in Europe PMC repository |
| Wellcome | Hybrid not covered. If the research article reports original Wellcome-funded research, it can be covered. All journals must appear in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ); page and colour charges not covered; rights retention statement required; CC BY licence required (CC BY ND can be applied as an exception); article must be deposited in Europe PMC repository |
| Cancer Research UK (CRUK) | See current status for more information. |
| British Heart Foundation | Hybrid journals are allowed; only original articles are eligible (reviews, editorials, commentary, and conference proceedings not covered); CC BY licence mandatory; article must be deposited in Europe PMC repository |
CRUK open access block grant: current status
On 1 April 2026 CRUK announced a new open access policy will take effect 1 October 2026, which states that CRUK will no longer pay for open access publishing.
As the most recent CRUK block grant is already fully committed, this means there is no longer a CRUK block grant available for Oxford authors to cover article processing charges (APCs) for gold open access journals. However, CRUK-funded researchers will still be required to make their work open access to meet funder and REF requirements.
This change reflects a shift in CRUK’s approach to supporting open access publishing, in light of ongoing concerns about the sustainability and effectiveness of the current publishing model. The Bodleian Libraries and University Divisions are currently reviewing the implications and how we can best support our affected researchers in the longer term. We will share further updates as soon as possible.
In the meantime, between now and 1 October 2026, we recommend using one of the following routes to ensure compliance:
- Publish in a journal covered by an Oxford open access publishing agreement.
- Publish in a diamond open access journal (no fees, immediate open access). Many established and reputable journals follow this model. You can identify suitable titles via the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), or contact the open access team for advice.
- Publish in a subscription or hybrid journal without paying an APC, and deposit the author accepted manuscript in Europe PubMed Central immediately upon publication. The manuscript must contain text applying a CC BY 4.0 licence: “[Title] by [Author(s)] [Source - link to DOI] is licensed under CC BY 4.0 [link to http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/]”. If you choose this route, we recommend you contact the open access team for guidance.
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If your only option is to publish in a gold open access journal that charges APCs: before 1 October 2026, where possible use your CRUK grant underspend or other available local funds to pay the APC. If no other funding sources are available, please contact the OA payments team for advice: oapayments@bodleian.ox.ac.uk
We are exploring options for cases where no other funding sources or routes are available.
Last updated: 16 April 2026
Apply to the block grant
To apply for the block grant please complete our online form (requires a VPN connection and an SSO).
If you are eligible, the Open Access Payments Team (OAPT) will request the invoice from the publisher and arrange payment from a block grant. This means departments should NOT pay the invoice and claim reimbursement.
Contact us
If you have a query about block grant payments, please contact the Open Access Payments Team at oapayments@bodleian.ox.ac.uk
