The Call for Proposals is now available for those who seek to apply for grant funds to support Open Educational Resources (OER) work in Fiscal Year 2027! 

The CUNY OER Initiative, managed by CUNY Central’s Office of Library Services (OLS), seeks to incentivize and empower faculty to support their students by reducing the cost of their course materials to zero and creating, adapting, and adopting OER and Open Educational Practices (OEP). For FY2027, the Initiative emphasizes coordinated, sustainable, and high-quality OER ecosystems across CUNY. We aim to support work that advances student access, strengthens cross-campus collaboration, improves data integrity, and builds durable institutional capacity. 

To view the entire CFP with full information and an OER glossary of terms, please click here: Full Call for Proposals Document.

Proposals are due by Monday, May 11. Late proposals will not be considered. 

How to submit an application: 

1) To submit a proposal for original OER content creation, such as a textbook, assessments, or other ancillary materials, applicants must submit ONLY via the CUNY form online. Content creation proposals that are not submitted via this form will not be considered. 

2) To submit a proposal for a course conversion to Zero Textbook Cost using OER or other freely available materials, or for any other proposal types, please fill out the General OER Application Form, available online.

Faculty compensation ranges from $500 – $10,000, depending upon the scope and type of project. The scope of work must be completed in FY27, and any redesigned courses must be taught no later than Fall 2027. Proposals for the following are welcomed:  

1.      OER/ZTC course conversion 

2.      Faculty Department OER Liaison Work 

3.      Systemwide OER/ZTC Data Tracking and Reporting 

4.      Awareness Building/Professional Development 

5.      Z-Degree Pathways 

6.      Cross-CUNY Collaboration 

7.      OER Content creation:  

Content creation projects constitute the production of openly licensed material that is beyond a syllabus or a Website that is a collection of material. For FY27, OER creation projects will be funded on a tiered system based on the stage of the project: Planning, Production, and Revision projects. Please view the full CFP for details.

For more details about the new grant tiers see this explanation document and see the content creation application. 

Please read the campus ​CFP document before submitting.​

If you have questions regarding the grant or application, please contact: Christina Boyle, Emerging Technologies Librarian and OER Coordinator; christina.boyle@csi.cuny.edu .

By the Division of Academic Affairs