POC Action 2.2.1, ICT clusters: funding between EUR 500,000 and 3,500,000, closed with the 2014-2020 period

A project qualified if it led to developing ranges of ICT products and services applicable across the rest of the Romanian economy, for the vertical integration of ICT solutions, or to strategic innovative projects with an impact on the whole ICT industry nationally or internationally. The official page is explicit about the ambition: the aim was the move from outsourcing to innovation-driven development, plus collaboration between cluster-type structures in the ICT industry.

Eligible applicants were SMEs operating in Romania, centred on the ICT field or active within ICT-centred clusters, as well as consortia — partnerships — of SMEs from such clusters. Support covered investments in tangible and intangible assets within an initial investment, industrial research and experimental development, SME innovation projects, and process and organisational innovation.

De minimis aid was a separate category with its own regime: market research, information and publicity, consultancy, permits, authorisations, training, audit, management, subscriptions. It was financed in full, but with a double cap — EUR 200,000 and 20% of the project's eligible costs. That structure, a small de minimis attached to a large aid amount, reappears in the call that followed.

On programme lists recompiled year after year, 2014-2020 calls still appear next to open ones, as if they were alternative routes for the same buyer. They are not: POC ended with its programming period, and a figure taken from it into today's budget produces a project mis-sized from day one.

The concrete difference: under POCIDIF Action 2.1 the non-reimbursable ceiling for a project whose result is an innovative software solution is EUR 1,500,000, and the EUR 3,000,000 figure applies only to projects whose result is an innovative hardware product manufactured by the beneficiary. The minimum is EUR 200,000, not 500,000. A firm budgeting from the old 3.5 million band gets it wrong in both directions.

The legal reference changes too: for the call open now the reference document is the applicant guide approved by MIPE Order no. 965 of 23 June 2026, and the state aid and de minimis scheme by OMIPE no. 875 of 15 June 2026. Any figure not found there has no place in a funding application.

Submission opened on 30 June 2026 at 15:00 and closes on 30 September 2026 at 17:00, through MySMIS2021, with a call allocation of EUR 48,813,278 from the ERDF and the state budget. Approval requires a minimum of 70 points, and the excellence threshold is 92: projects reaching it enter contracting in submission order, up to 50% of the allocation — so for a very strong project the submission date decides the queue.

The entry restriction is the authorised CAEN code, in the rev.3 nomenclature: 2611, 2612, 2630, 5821, 5829, 6210, 6220, 6290 or 6310. That is the exact opposite of the rule on internal-digitalization calls, where some ICT codes sit on an exclusion list; lists do not transfer between programmes. Implementation runs to at most 24 months and does not pass 31 December 2029.

One limit we state before any offer: the POCIDIF 2.1 guide forbids fully outsourcing the technical activities, and at least 20% of the non-reimbursable assistance allocated to the core activity must go to the beneficiary's own staff. We cannot be your entire technical team on this call, however convenient the contract would be — and it is better to hear that from the supplier than from the evaluator.

Product specifications, a technical offer broken down by functionality, a budget by eligible cost category, the supply contract or pre-contract, then the development itself and the documents required at each reimbursement claim. We do not draft the funding application and we do not submit in MySMIS; if you work with a consultant on the administrative side, we coordinate with them directly.

For sizing we use the bands published in our own cost guides rather than percentages of the grant: a commercially launchable SaaS platform sits indicatively in the EUR 15,000-60,000 band, and a mature product with full billing, roles and integrations in EUR 60,000-150,000 and above. The firm figure follows an analysis stage, and the offer is written at a value we can actually honour at contracting.