In the fall of 2023, the Office of Academic Affairs (OAA) launched the UA Subvention Grant Program to promote the scholarly activities of UA faculty and partially defray such subvention costs. OAA is committed to supporting UA faculty as they work to achieve their goals in the classroom, research and creative endeavors, community outreach and engaged scholarship. Academic publishers are increasingly requiring authors to provide financial support (i.e., subvention) to cover the costs of production and/or permissions associated with their books, scholarly publications and/or creative works in the visual and performing arts.
Applications will be accepted on an annual basis during the month of October with the goal of supporting creative works produced and requiring subvention in the prior year.
Funds are limited and will be provided in grants up to $1,500 per faculty member. The priorities for this program include scholarly and creative works that will advance faculty toward tenure or promotion. Faculty are encouraged to pursue support from their departments and other available sources. Requests will be limited to one per faculty member per year.
- Eligible faculty include:
- Tenured, tenure-track and non-tenure-track faculty for whom research, scholarship and/or creative expression are included as one of their job responsibilities and/or are required for consideration for promotion.
- Emeritus faculty, retirees, staff, students, temporary faculty, individuals whose contracts will not be renewed the following year, those who have notified UA of their intent to resign in the current or subsequent academic year are ineligible, or individuals who receive a cash advance from the publisher are ineligible.
Subvention grants are available to eligible faculty who have a formal and accepted contract or invoice dated November 1, of the previous year or thereafter from established university presses, established professional societies, or established publishers for a peer-reviewed work.
- All eligible works (e.g., accepted book, master recording, finished paintings or sculpture, etc.) must be in press/production or complete at the time of application.
- Artwork, maps, photographs, permissions and other special production elements are allowed.
- Work may cover any discipline and may be in any language.
- Publication of textbooks, anthologies, translations of previously published books, editing contributions, journal article fees, journal reprint fees or open access fees will not be supported.
- Routine author activities, such as indexing or page and reprint costs of articles in professional journals are not covered.
- The scholarly work must be created solely or chiefly by UA faculty member. Co-authors (e.g., graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, other faculty) are permitted.
Subvention funds will be paid directly to the faculty member as reimbursement. Subvention recipients may not be an agent or employee of the work’s publisher or producer.
The faculty member should acknowledge subvention grant support in the preface, introduction or acknowledgement of the work if possible with the following: “Support for this scholarly work was provided by The University of Alabama Office of Academic Affairs”.
The publisher or author must agree to provide one copy of the book or creative work to the UA Office of Academic Affairs at no cost to the author or to UA.
How to Apply
Applications to the UA Subvention Grant program must be submitted between
October 1 and November 15 and include (in a single pdf document.)
A description (one page or less) of the work for which subvention is being requested.
A copy of the formal letter of acceptance for the work that specifies the total cost of production, the financial and other support that they will make to make to its production, the amount of subvention requested, and the justification for the amount requested.
Curriculum vitae of the applicant.
A copy of at least one pre-publication review from an independent reviewer (not affiliated with UA) who is an expert in the field.