How to Find a PhD Supervisor in Poland (and Get Funded)

Older guides to a Polish PhD still describe a system built around individually arranged "doctoral studies" and a separate scholarship application. That system was largely replaced starting in 2019 by doctoral schools (szkoły doktorskie), and the change matters for anyone planning a funding strategy: at most doctoral schools today, getting admitted and getting funded are the same event, there's no separate stipend competition to win afterward. What that shifts the real competitive gate to is admission itself, and admission in Poland typically requires an accepted supervisor and a defined research proposal before you apply, not after.

Doctoral schools: admission is the funding decision

Poland's 2019 Law on Higher Education and Science restructured doctoral education around doctoral schools, replacing the older model of individually supervised "doctoral studies" at most institutions. The practical shift: at most doctoral schools, every admitted candidate automatically receives the doctoral stipend, with no separate scholarship application or committee decision required afterward. That's a genuinely different structure from countries where a supervisor's agreement gets you admitted but funding is still a separate, competitive step. In Poland, the two are collapsed into one, which raises the stakes on the admission process itself.

What the stipend actually pays

The government sets a national minimum stipend tied to a fixed percentage of the base professor's salary: roughly 37% before your mid-term evaluation (typically around the end of your second year) and roughly 57% after a positive evaluation. In practical terms that's recently worked out to around PLN 3,570 gross a month before the evaluation and around PLN 5,500 gross a month after, though these move each year with the underlying salary base, so treat them as a baseline rather than a fixed number. Individual doctoral schools can, and often do, pay above the national minimum. The University of Warsaw's doctoral school, for example, has paid closer to PLN 4,346 gross before the evaluation, above the government floor. Confirm the specific figure with your target school directly, since it varies by institution.

Why you still need a supervisor before you apply

Automatic funding on admission doesn't mean admission itself is easy or generic. Doctoral schools typically require applicants to submit a defined research proposal aligned with a specific supervisor's work, and in most cases that supervisor's agreement to take you on is expected as part of a competitive application, not something arranged after acceptance. This makes direct outreach to a professor whose recent published work matches your background the real first step in a Polish PhD plan, the same structural pattern covered in our guides to the Netherlands and Sweden, where an agreed supervisor is also a precondition for a funded position rather than a formality after the fact.

Funding beyond the standard stipend: NAWA and NCN

On top of the standard doctoral school stipend, Poland's National Agency for Academic Exchange (NAWA) runs scholarship programmes specifically aimed at foreign nationals studying and doing research in Poland, with application windows that open on their own annual cycle. Separately, the National Science Centre (NCN) funds additional doctoral support through programmes like ETIUDA, which combines a doctoral stipend with a mobility grant covering a period of research abroad, typically up to 12 months, alongside your Polish doctoral school enrollment. Neither replaces the base doctoral school stipend; both are worth checking as additional funding once you're already admitted or in the process of applying.

Visa mechanics for non-EU candidates

Non-EU/EEA applicants apply for the National (Type D) visa marked with symbol '09' for study purposes, at a Polish consulate before travel, generally valid for an initial stay of up to 12 months. After arriving, you apply for a Karta Pobytu (residence card) at the local Voivodeship Office within the first 90 days, which then covers your stay for up to three years and is renewable, a lighter ongoing burden than systems requiring annual visa renewal from abroad. One recent procedural change worth knowing: as of mid-2025, applicants holding a high school diploma from outside the EU, OECD, or EFTA (and without an IB diploma) also need a separate written confirmation from NAWA that their diploma qualifies them to study in Poland, obtained before the visa application itself, an extra step that can add real lead time if you're not aware of it in advance.

A practical search order

• Identify professors actively publishing in your subfield at Polish universities running an English- language doctoral school, if language is a factor for you.
• Email the professor directly, referencing their specific recent work, well ahead of the doctoral school's application deadline, since a defined proposal and supervisor agreement are typically part of a competitive application.
• Once you have that agreement, confirm the doctoral school's current stipend rate and check whether NAWA or NCN funding applies on top of it.
• Start the Type D visa process early, and check the NAWA diploma-recognition requirement if your prior schooling was outside the EU, OECD, or EFTA.

GradScoutFunding is built for that first step: it searches professors by field and country, confirms they're actively publishing, and drafts a personalized first email grounded in their real recent paper for you to review and send yourself. It can confirm a professor is active and reachable, not that a specific doctoral school will admit you or that NAWA or NCN funding will come through, that depends on each programme's own selection process. The free tier gives 2 credits with no card required, and paid credit packs are one-time purchases that never expire.

Common questions