Polish-U.S. Fulbright Commission
The Polish-U.S. Fulbright Commission is a public benefit organization operating under a bilateral agreement between the governments of Poland and the United States, supporting academic and cultural exchange between these two countries. The Commission administers the Fulbright Program in Poland and offers support to individuals and institutions interested in collaborating to advance science and culture with institutions in the U.S. The Fulbright Commission develops talents, strengthens human potential, shapes future social leaders, builds lasting connections, and supports communities through educational exchange.
Our Mission
We provide space for talent development by strengthening human potential. We build lasting connections, expand knowledge, and support communities through educational exchange.
The Fulbright Program
The Fulbright Program is the flagship international educational exchange program of the U.S. government.
For over 75 years, the Fulbright Program has supported cooperation for the development of science, culture, and interpersonal, as well as inter-institutional relations between the United States and over 160 countries.
The task of the Program is not only to support the scientific community, but also to promote creative leadership. Shaping future social leaders, politicians and government advisers is an activity of the Commission, part of the process of realizing Fulbright’s dream of living in peace and reducing the risk of international conflicts. Thanks to the graduates of the Program, awareness and intercultural sensitivity are instilled in those people who directly decide about social order in the world.
The Fulbright Program aims at advancing diversity, equity and inclusion. Opportunities are open to people regardless of race, ethnicity, national origin, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, age, religion, geographic location, represented institutions and disciplines, socio-economic status, and ability.
The Fulbright Poland grants
The most important operational task of our Commission is the administration of the Fulbright Program in Poland. We carry out recruitment, promote the Program and its philosophy at universities across the country, we look for institutional partners and organizations that can host American scholarship holders in Poland, we seek additional sources of funding.
All these activities are aimed at leading to the popularization of our ideological goals, increasing awareness about and accessibility to the scholarship program, the scope of which is very wide, both because of the persons to whom the Program is addressed, but also as a result of the subject areas that the Program supports.
Senator James W. Fulbright
American lawyer, university professor and politician. He was a United States Senator representing Arkansas from 1945 until 1974. His efforts to establish an international exchange program resulted in the creation of a fellowship program which bears his name, the Fulbright Program.
For his merits to promote mutual understanding between nations he has been repeatedly acknowledged by governments, universities and educational organizations from around the world. In 1993, President Bill Clinton presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Fulbright, the highest civilian medal of the United States. Also in 1993 he was awarded the Commander’s Cross with the Star of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland, by the President Lech Wałęsa.
Funding of the Fulbright Program in Poland
The Fulbright Program in Poland is sponsored jointly by the Polish Minister of Education and Science and the U.S. Department of State. We would not be able to continue our mission without close partnerships with Polish and American higher education institutions and the support of our donors.
Funding from the Polish state budget (from the Minister of Education and Science) received in 2023 amounts to 5 053 000 PLN. Our financial statements and annual activity reports are available in the “Documents” section of our website.