Announcing 2025 Grant Winners for JCU Library's Textbook Affordability Project


James Cook University Library is proud to announce the recipients of the 2025 Textbook Affordability Project (TAP) grants—a key initiative supporting the transition to free, high-quality learning resources for students. These grants empower academic staff to develop open educational resources (OERs) that replace costly commercial textbooks, helping to reduce financial barriers and improve access to learning.

This year’s TAP-funded projects span a wide range of disciplines and could potentially save students over $800,000 in textbook costs. The new resources will be available to students by the end of 2026, providing ongoing benefits for future cohorts.

2025 TAP Grant Recipients


Each winning application will receive $3000 towards the development of a JCU Open eBook. The winners are as follows:

Dr Lauren Waszek, Dr Gregory Boyle, Dr Sara Brice, Prof. Scott Heron, A/Prof. Daniel Kosov, Dr James Whinney

College of Science and Engineering
Project: Development of a JCU Open eBook (title TBA) to replace a physics textbook and paid question bank for four subjects.
Estimated savings: $149 per student for 241 students — $35,909 total

A/Prof. Monika Zimanyi, A/Prof. Alex Trollope, Dr Amanda Meyer, Prof. Kate Domett

College of Medicine and Dentistry & College of Science and Engineering
Project: Slide into Histology — replacing three textbooks across 14 subjects.
Estimated savings: $284 per student for 1,729 students — $491,036 total

Dr Amanda Krause, Dr Daniel Miller, Dr Clint Knight, Dr Klaire Somoray, Dr Janine Lurie

College of Healthcare Sciences
Project: JCU Psychology Research — replacing a textbook and transitioning to open-source statistical software.
Estimated savings: $100 per student for 1,866 students — $186,600 total

Diana Castorina

College of Business, Law and Governance
Project: Principles of Economics — replacing a textbook for a first-year economics subject.
Estimated savings: $75 per student for 842 students — $63,150 total

Swapna Chaudhary

College of Medicine and Dentistry
Project: Introduction to Research Methods in Pharmacy Practice — replacing a textbook across three pharmacy subjects.
Estimated savings: $119 per student for 241 students — $28,679 total

These projects reflect JCU’s commitment to student success, innovation in teaching, and the growing impact of Open Educational Practices.

Are you rewriting curriculum to transition to trimesters and online delivery, or are you interested in similar opportunities? We are here to help with a range of alternatives to traditional student paid textbooks:

For more information, please email our Open Education team. 


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