VIVA: VIVA Open Grants Call for Proposals
- VIVA
- VIVA, Virginia's Academic Library Consortium
- VIVA
- VIVA Open Grants Call for Proposals
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VIVA: VIVA Open Grants Call for Proposals
VIVA Open Grants releases requests for proposals once a year. The RFP describes the scope and aims of the proposals, including how applications will be reviewed. The applications include all of the sections that must be submitted for consideration. Please note that VIVA Open Grants also have application instructions available, and applicants are strongly advised to download the instructions as well as the RFP and application.
All applicants must complete an initial application that includes basic information about the project, budget and team, as well as a two-page project description.
Adopt Grants will be awarded on the strength of this initial application.
For Creation Grants and Grants for Libraries, this is a two-step application process. After review of the initial project description, finalists will be notified and asked to complete a more extensive application.
The initial application is intended to give applicants an opportunity to provide us with relevant information and to describe the proposed project in detail, including specific resources adopted and a timeline to project completion. Please answer the questions specifically and in concert with the guidelines outlined in the RFP and these instructions. Questions for VIVA can be directed to vivaopen@gmu.edu.
Applications should be completed online by 11:59 pm on November 5, 2025. Applications received after this time will not be considered. Please contact viva if you have any difficulties completing the online application.
The VIVA Open Grants Program reduces the costs of higher education for Virginia students by eliminating the costs of textbooks and other course materials. These costs can be a significant barrier to student success, shaping everything from what majors are chosen to whether or not degrees are completed. The high cost of textbooks, technology and course materials, currently estimated by The College Board to be around $1,300 per student per year, means that students often do not purchase course materials, and academic performance suffers as a result. Barriers to curricular resources have been further exacerbated by COVID-19.
Although the need is clear, faculty who wish to design courses using open or no-cost materials have few resources available to them. The purpose of the VIVA Open Grant program is address this challenge by providing support for time and support needed to integrate existing open or no-cost materials into a course and/or create new materials.
Grants are intended to:
In addition, the VIVA Grants for Libraries program recognizes that there are curricular needs that are not tied to a single specific course, and supports libraries as they work to support their campus's curricular needs.
Full or part-time faculty (of any rank, including lecturer) may apply for a grant to support the adoption, adaptation, or creation of OER, including textbooks, software, test banks and ancillary materials, and library resources that replace a traditional textbook or other costly class resources. Each grant category has a different focus and requirements, so individual RFPs should be reviewed to determine which grant program is the best fit for a project. Successful applications will receive 75% of the funding at the outset of the project and the remaining 25% upon completion of a final report.
Applications will be reviewed by a grant committee and VIVA administrators. Grants will be awarded based on:
