Medical research charities launch charity fund for UK APCs

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Six UK medical research charities have launched the Charity Open Access Fund (COAF) to cover open-access, article-processing charges (APCs). The fund, which is being administered by the Wellcome Trust for an initial two-year pilot phase, will provide block grants to 36 UK research institutions. This money can be used to cover APCs for peer-reviewed original research articles where one, or more, of the participating charities, funds the research. 

The Charity Open Access Fund (COAF) is a partnership between Arthritis Research UK, Breast Cancer Campaign, the British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK, Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research and the Wellcome Trust to enable free and unrestricted access to the published outputs of the research that the organisations support. 

After operating COAF for one year, the Wellcome Trust says that it will publish details on how the fund has been used and, working with colleagues at RLUK and Jisc Collections, consider whether additional rules need to be set to ensure that UK institutions are getting value for money in terms of their combined OA and subscription spend.