2025 has unfolded as one of those years where coincidence and serendipity quietly redirect your path in ways you never anticipated. And, perhaps most unexpectedly of all, it brought me a friendship I never saw coming – one that, both lightly and deeply, has been one of the greatest gifts of recent times.
That’s how I suddenly found myself in the middle of a conversation about the Polish grant system and – a bit like a glitch in the Matrix – I began to dive deeper. What struck me was that, although Czechs and Poles share so much culturally and personally, Poland has managed in recent years to take some huge steps forward in science. The more I explored their funding landscape, the clearer it became that in the Czech Republic we don’t need to look to the West for inspiration – we only need to look North!
Clear communication is key for transparent science
The Polish national research agency, NCN (Narodowe Centrum Nauki – the Polish counterpart of the Czech Science Foundation, GAČR), impressed me straight away. I was fascinated by how polished and professional their website was, and how easy it was to navigate, even for someone who doesn’t speak Polish (well, not fluently, anyway… 😊 ).
Funding agencies are usually judged by the size of their budgets and by how strict or fair their peer review is. Far less attention is paid to how they present their programmes or how clearly they communicate with potential applicants. Yet that too has a huge influence on who applies, on how easily international researchers can navigate the system, and on the overall image the agency projects.
Both NCN and GAČR share the same mission: to fund excellent basic research. On paper, their programmes aren’t as different as one might think. The real contrast lies in how those schemes are presented, how their websites work, and how quickly applicants can find the information they need. And it’s here that the gap between the two agencies really shows.
What really stands out about NCN is how clearly and simply they present their programmes. Their website has a well-structured menu that takes you from the homepage to the details of a specific call in just a few clicks.
Take the OPUS scheme, for example – an open competition for researchers at any stage of their career. The information is available in both Polish and English and follows a neat, logical structure: a short introduction, announcement date, deadline, budget, eligibility criteria, and links to the necessary forms. Everything is further broken down into tidy sub-sections with visual elements, so even someone completely new to the Polish system can get the full picture in less than half a minute.
When you compare this programme with GAČR’s standard grant, the core idea isn’t all that different. But the experience of finding the information certainly is. NCN puts everything in one place, clearly laid out. GAČR, by contrast, sends you clicking through several sections, digging into tabs like “Types of grant projects (including statistics from the 2020 and 2019 calls in 2025),” “Important terms and deadlines (which are all relevant to those undertaking granted projects, not those submitting proposals in the most current calls),” or “Tender documents,” and downloading PDFs that aren’t always well structured (#sorrynotsorry).
Overall, it seems that without some prior familiarity with the agency’s terminology and structure, it can be quite easy to lose your way among the various links and tender documents. I was able to locate the Standard programme fairly quickly, but that was largely due to my previous experience navigating the GAČR website. For a colleague encountering it for the first time, I can imagine it might feel somewhat overwhelming. Alternatively, they must be in close contact with the grant office at the Czech institution where they will be applying to with their grant, but this is not always possible at the stage when looking at options of grant funding in different countries.
On top of that, NCN even offers a very nice interactive tool. You answer three simple yes/no questions and enter how many years it’s been since your PhD, and the system instantly generates a list of the schemes most relevant to your situation. It’s an incredibly practical feature – one that saves time and makes life much easier, especially for people who are new to the Polish system.
Use of English opens up the system to researchers (Czechs and foreigners) coming from abroad
Language policy is another important aspect. NCN makes a noticeable effort to support international researchers. While some parts of the proposal—such as the abstract or title—still need to be submitted in Polish (as is also the case with GAČR), the information about the calls is presented clearly in English. This makes the website reasonably accessible even for researchers in Poland who do not speak the language. GAČR also provides an English version of its site, though it shares some of the navigational challenges found in the Czech version. In this regard, NCN seems somewhat more accessible for non-native researchers.
Funding call frequency and target group breadth
Another positive aspect of the NCN system is the regularity of its calls. With competitions opening twice a year, researchers have considerably more flexibility; missing a deadline does not mean waiting an entire year, but simply trying again a few months later. GAČR, in comparison, typically opens its main calls once annually, which can make the process feel somewhat less adaptable to the natural rhythms of research.
The breadth of NCN’s portfolio is similarly noteworthy. The agency provides opportunities for nearly every stage of an academic career, from pre-doctoral grants and PhD candidates nearing completion, to early postdocs, newly independent researchers, and senior academics leading larger teams. This structure brings a clear advantage: applicants compete primarily with peers at a comparable career stage. A postdoc a few years beyond their PhD, for example, is not directly competing with a long-established group leader with a substantial publication record. This approach tends to create a fairer and more supportive environment, with success rates that better reflect realistic expectations for each career phase.
GAČR, of course, has its own strengths, including the JUNIORSTAR scheme aimed at early-career researchers. However, in recent years it has become highly competitive, to the point where the chances of success may be even lower than for an ERC Starting Grant. By contrast, NCN offers two dedicated schemes—SONATA and SONATA BIS—which provide early-career researchers with a broader range of opportunities. Similarly, GAČR’s EXPRO programme supports very senior researchers, though it runs only once every two years and funds a relatively small number of projects, which can be challenging given the size of the Czech research community.
What appears to be missing in the Czech landscape is a programme aimed at researchers who are already well established but not yet at the level of the most senior leaders – something broadly comparable to the ERC Consolidator Grant stage. Introducing such a scheme could offer valuable continuity for mid-career scientists and help support the long-term development of research teams.
Take home message: can we learn something to take away for the Czech system?
The comparison between the two agencies suggests that user-friendliness is not merely a pleasant addition but an important element that shapes how a funding organisation is perceived. Clear design and well-structured information do more than improve aesthetics: they save researchers valuable time, contribute to a sense of transparency, and make the agency more approachable for an international audience. When a foreign applicant cannot quickly locate key details, it can leave a less positive impression of both the agency and the wider research environment. In an increasingly global research landscape, this can be a meaningful limitation.
With this in mind, there may be a few areas where GAČR could gently enhance the user experience. One potential improvement could be to streamline the menu and present the key materials within a single, clearly structured platform. Introducing light visual elements (such as timelines, simple infographics, or schematic overviews) might help users quickly understand which calls are currently open, when outcomes are expected, and whom each scheme is designed for, without the need to download additional documents. It might also be helpful to give a little more visibility to international schemes, which can otherwise be easy to miss among the extensive set of materials available.
NCN’s website illustrates that thoughtful investment in user experience can be highly beneficial: it enhances efficiency for applicants and contributes to the overall credibility of the agency. Notably, many of these enhancements need not involve substantial financial resources.
My unexpected Polish detour proved genuinely inspiring, showing that examples of effective practice are not limited to Western Europe. Within Central Europe, too, there are approaches that are both relevant and surprisingly well aligned with our own needs. That, for me, has been the most valuable discovery of all.
This piece would not have come to life without the guidance of my great friend Prof. MK, who helped me shape it and who opened the door not only to the Polish grant system, but also to a few other worlds that brightened my life in ways I hadn’t imagined.
Soňa Krajčovičová
Soňa Krajčovičová completed her undergraduate studies at Masaryk University in Brno and her PhD at Palacký University in Olomouc. During her PhD she was on an internship in Göttingen, Germany, for which she received a DAAD scholarship. Since 2021, she has been living in the UK, where she is a postdoc at the University of Cambridge, thanks to scholarships from the Experientia Foundation and the Czech Science Foundation. She is a synthetic organic chemist with a focus on chemical biology and at Cambridge she is mainly involved in the synthesis of peptides and ADCs. As a volunteer, she is involved in Czexpats in Science as a social media content creator. She joined Czexpats in October 2023, after a successful Czexpats meeting in London.