 In April 2005 he was recommended by the Board of the Institute for the position of the president and was approved by the Polish Sejm and Senate in December of that year.He took his oath of office on 29 December 2005.In 2007, Kurtyka was awarded the Ukrainian Order of Merit, third degree and in April 2009 he was awarded the Commander's Cross with Star of the Order of Polonia Restituta by the President of Poland, Lech Kaczynski.