1 April 2026
(Via Research Professional News and the Cancer Research UK blog)
“We need efficient scholarly communications to spread scientific ideas via a fair economic model. We currently don’t have that. The open access movement was bold and promising, but ultimately disappointing. Now is the time to stop and call for a new way to make publishing work…“
Cancer Research UK will no longer allow its block grants and institutional core funding to cover open access publishing charges, Research Professional News can reveal.
“It is the principle. Every penny we spend, we have to raise…we have to evaluate everything we do,” said Dan Burkwood, director of research operations and communications at CRUK, speaking exclusively with RPN.
The charity currently funds open access publishing charges through its block grants, as well as core funding for each of its four cancer research institutes. But Burkwood said collective action in recent years between funders, universities and publishers has not moved the needle.
“We cannot justify continuing to spend significant sums of money on [open access charges] while we think it is not achieving what we set out to do,” Burkwood continued.
The new policy takes effect on 1 April, but for existing grant holders it will come into force from 1 October.
Cost concerns
CRUK said the current open access landscape “does not provide value for money” for researchers, funders, research institutions or the public.
“Cancer Research UK continues to support the principle of open access, but the current system is inefficient and costly,” it added. “We want to ensure every pound we raise works harder for our life-saving research to beat cancer.”