Funding Opportunities

Open Textbook Grant

Open Textbook Grants of up to $5000 support the development of open textbooks for MacEwan University courses. The goal is to reduce student costs while ensuring high-quality, curriculum-aligned resources.

This funding provided by the Office of the Provost assists faculty in creating original open textbooks, adapting existing ones, or developing supplementary materials for use alongside an open textbook—such as test banks, instructor manuals, and multimedia resources—to meet instructional needs.

Prior to applying:

Consult with your Chair and/or Dean, as applicable, about your intentions to apply for this grant to ensure they support the work you intend to complete if your application is successful.
Contact digitalscholarship@macewan.ca to arrange for a short consultation to discuss your project to ensure it meets eligibility criteria.

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Grant Guidelines

Applicant Eligibility

All MacEwan University faculty members employed through 2025-2026 are eligible to apply, including sessional instructors.
Faculty can apply on their own or as the lead of a team; teams can include students, other faculty or staff members, community partners, and colleagues at other institutions.
Recipients may only hold one open textbook grant at a time in a 12-month period.

Deadline and Fund Duration

Applications for this fund are open year-round dependent on available funding. Priority will be given to eligible applications received in March and April of each year.

Successful applicants will be notified within 15 business days of their application being submitted.

Funds from the Open Textbook Grant must be spent within 12 months of receipt.

Expected Outcomes

Projects must be made available to students within two years of receiving funding.
Completed open textbooks will be disseminated under a Creative Commons license that allows for reuse using the university’s publishing service, MacEwan Open Books, which uses Pressbooks software.
Where applicable, completed supplementary resources will be disseminated under a Creative Commons license that allows for reuse in a suitable open education repository.

In-Kind Support

Successful recipients will have access to support from the library’s Open Textbook Production Team, including help with:

Pressbooks publishing software training (includes H5P to develop interactive content)
Basic software formatting, including multimedia integrations
Copyright and licensing guidance
Copyediting
Book cover design
Metadata for discoverability Assignment of a DOI and ISBN

Support will be contingent on staff capacity levels and project requirements; any gaps in coverage may be addressed with grant funding.

Eligible Expenses

Recipients may use funding for the following expenses:

Student research assistant salaries (information on wage amounts and timesheet reporting can be found on the Research Office website).
Peer-review and other honorariums (not to exceed $300 each)
Software purchases or licensing
Contracted assistance (for example: editing services, illustrations)

Application Review Criteria

Applications will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

Impact and benefit to MacEwan students, including cost savings, accessibility, and relevance to the curriculum.
Evidence of need for an open textbook on the proposed topic.
Project feasibility in terms of scope, timeline, and budget.
A commitment that the completed work, including any content from external sources, can be distributed openly under a Creative Commons license that allows for reuse.
Successful completion of any previous open textbook projects that received university funding.

Questions?

Contact digitalscholarship@macewan.ca

Open Textbook Grant

Grant Guidelines

Questions?

Treaty Six Territory

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