Projects and Grants

The State University of New York (SUNY) has received $4 million from New York State since 2017 to fund the sustained use of Open Educational Resources (OER). Calculating savings to students and families in the timeframe 2017-2023, SUNY had more than tripled the impact of that investment.

From 2017 through Spring 2023, total savings is over $90 million.

Details of funding models for each year are below. Please send additional questions to oer@suny.edu.

Current Projects

2024 SUNY OER Impact Grants

OER Impact grants are combined with Innovative Instruction Technology Grants (IITG) for 2024. The combined call for proposals for the Innovative Instruction Technology Grants (IITG) and Open Educational Resources (OER) Impact Grants provides funding opportunities designed to foster academic innovation.

This year, a new two-stage proposal process will increase SUNY-wide collaboration by inviting all campus faculty and staff to align innovative ideas with the Chancellor’s four strategic pillars (detailed below). These ideas will be aggregated and organized with all participants being required to participate in a brief community building effort to scale innovations by exploring use of:

Artificial Intelligence (AI) for teaching and learning, and/or
Open Educational Resources (OER) development

Program applicants (individuals, groups, or campuses) must participate in both stages to receive funds, additional partnerships however, may be formed post-award decisions.

Please see the IITG and OER 2024 Request for Proposals for more information.

2023 SUNY OER Impact Grants

For 2023, selected institutions will be awarded SUNY OER Grants to support significant advances in OER adoption, scaling, and sustainability in support of student success. There are two levels of grant funding – up to $15,000 and up to $30,000. Grants will be awarded for projects such as:

Large-scale adoption of OER for high-enrollment courses and gateway courses with the highest drop/fail/withdrawal rates 
Creation of OER, such as open textbooks, adaptive courses, and ancillary materials 
Professional development supporting OER and open pedagogy

For more information visit the 2023 OER Grants Program page https://oer.suny.edu/2023grants/

Previous Projects

Prior SUNY OER Funding Opportunities

2019-2020

Discipline-focused faculty development
Change Management and sustainability cohorts

One-third of campuses participated in facilitated sustainability workshops in 2019-2021
A two-year guided approach to sustainability

Limited new OER course section funding 2018-2019 SUNY OER Funding

2018-2019

Baseline and Course Section
OER Degree Program Development
OER Creation Projects

2017-2018

Baseline funding and per student enrollment funding

SUNY OER Services Funded OER Degree Programs

A.S. in Liberal Arts English and Humanities at Corning Community College
A.S. Liberal Arts in Math and Science at Herkimer Community College
M.A. in Learning and Emerging Technologies at Empire State College
Gen Ed pathway at SUNY Oneonta

Sustainability

Sustainability planning should occur at the beginning of the OER initiative. rpk GROUP worked with the SUNY System Office and OER implementation teams at four institutions to develop a set of resources to assist campuses with OER sustainability planning. In ad