Digital Europe Programme (DIGITAL): what it funds and how Romanian companies participate

The Digital Europe Programme is managed directly by the European Commission — unlike POCIDIF or the regional programmes, there is no national managing authority. HaDEA, its executive agency, runs the actions on advanced digital skills, accelerating best use of technologies, cloud, data and artificial intelligence, which is why part of the call portfolio never appears on the agency's own pages. The budget exceeds EUR 8.1 billion for the 2021-2027 period, according to the Commission's official page.

The money goes to European digital capacities: supercomputing, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, advanced digital skills and the wide use of technologies across the economy and society, to which semiconductors were added in September 2023 through the EU Chips Act.

Participation runs through the EU Funding and Tenders portal, where the calls are published: a company usually applies within a multinational consortium, alongside universities, institutes or companies from other member states. Funding rates are not fixed — they are established per the fiche of each call and topic on the portal.

Two of the open 2026 calls are managed by HaDEA: DIGITAL-2026-SKILLS-10, on advanced digital skills, and DIGITAL-2026-BESTUSE-10, on accelerating best use of technologies. Both were published on 10 April 2026, opened on 21 April 2026 and close on 1 October 2026 at 17:00 Brussels time, with budgets published per topic — from EUR 14.4 million for the European Health Data Space topic down to EUR 2 million for the national coalitions. The Commission lists further DIGITAL calls in the very same window, among them DIGITAL-2026-AI-DATA-10, DIGITAL-2026-BESTUSE-MCP-10 and the call for European Digital Infrastructure Consortia, each with its own fiche.

For most Romanian SMEs, the realistic contact with Digital Europe is not a consortium project but the EDIH network: the 7 Romanian hubs are financed 50% from DIGITAL and 50% from POCIDIF, under an action with an indicative budget of EUR 35 million, and they deliver services to companies — technology testing, training, orientation towards funding —, not cash grants.

On the POCIDIF calls that fund the network, the eligible applicant is the hub, never the company receiving the services. Northdan Soft is not an EDIH and does not offer funds-access consultancy: we are the software vendor that turns the recommendations of an EDIH journey or the specifications of a DIGITAL project into delivered implementation, with a technical offer and an eligible-cost budget.