EU Funding
POCU 2014-2020: the human side of digitalization, now archived
The Programul Operațional Capital Uman (Human Capital Operational Programme) has ended — the digital training and entrepreneurship it financed live on in PEO 2021-2027.
Programme fact sheet
- Programme
- Programul Operațional Capital Uman (POCU) 2014-2020
- Programme family
- POCU
- Managing authority
- MIPE — AM POCU
- Status
- ClosedChecked on 28 July 2026
- Funding value
- per the official applicant guide
Where POC put EU money into technology, POCU put it into the people who use it. The Programul Operațional Capital Uman — Romania's Human Capital Operational Programme 2014-2020 — was the human side of the country's digitalization: calls for training the digital skills of employees in SMEs and in large enterprises, plus the big entrepreneurship schemes — România Start-Up Plus and Innotech Student — from which thousands of new firms were born, many with a digital profile. The programme has now ended, its projects completed, but the names of its calls still appear constantly in searches, so we keep their honest archive here: what they financed, how they worked and what lessons they left. Just as important, we show the successor: in the 2021-2027 period, POCU's role passed to PEO — the Education and Employment Programme — including on digital skills, where we maintain a permanently updated status page. Northdan Soft views this whole landscape from its constant position of software supplier, not funding consultant: wherever training combines with the implementation of digital solutions, we cover the technical part.
Let’s talk about your project
Message us on WhatsApp or send an email — you talk directly to a developer.
office@northdan.com · +40 752 070 247
How we help
Clear confirmation that the programme has ended
There are no open POCU calls and there will be none — you learn that here in the first sentence, with a direct pointer to the programme that took its place.
An archive of the calls that matter
The child pages document the calls still searched for today: digital skills for employees in SMEs and in large enterprises, România Start-Up Plus and Innotech Student.
The bridge to PEO 2021-2027
Digital training for your team remains fundable — through PEO, POCU's successor. Our dedicated PEO page keeps the call statuses up to date.
The technical partner alongside training
When a project combines training people with implementing software, Northdan Soft delivers the technical component: the applications the team learns to work with.
What POCU was and what it funded
The Human Capital Operational Programme 2014-2020, run by the POCU managing authority within MIPE, was the instrument through which Romania invested EU funds in people: employment, education, inclusion. For the digital economy, two directions mattered in particular: the digital-skills training calls — one dedicated to employees of SMEs, another to employees of large enterprises — and the entrepreneurship schemes that financed the creation of new businesses.
On the entrepreneurship side, România Start-Up Plus was the programme's largest scheme, with subsidies for thousands of new businesses, and Innotech Student replicated the model for students. A significant share of the businesses created were digital: websites, online stores, IT services.
How the programme closed and what lessons it left
With the end of the programming period, POCU concluded and its projects were finalised. No old page promising POCU grants reflects reality any longer — submitting on these calls is impossible.
The programme's overarching lesson: money for people flows through intermediaries. On the training calls, the applicants were training providers, employers' organisations and chambers of commerce, not the beneficiary firms directly; on the entrepreneurship schemes, grant administrators. Whoever understands this mechanism navigates the current successor far more easily too.
The successor open now: PEO 2021-2027
In the 2021-2027 period, POCU's role was taken over by PEO — the Education and Employment Programme. For companies interested in digital training for employees, our page on PEO and digital skills keeps track of the calls and their status, updated at every official MIPE announcement.
Northdan Soft's position is unchanged: we are a software supplier. We do not write funding applications and we do not administer grants — but when your project pairs team training with the implementation of digital solutions, we build the software side and hand over the technical documentation the file needs.
Frequently asked questions
Are there still open calls under POCU?
No — POCU 2014-2020 has ended, with all projects finalised. For training and employment, the active programme of the 2021-2027 period is PEO (the Education and Employment Programme), which we follow on our dedicated page.
Which POCU calls mattered for digitalization?
Four are worth remembering: the two digital-skills calls — for employees of SMEs and for those of large enterprises — plus the entrepreneurship schemes România Start-Up Plus and Innotech Student, which produced many businesses with a digital profile.
Where is employee digital training funded today?
Through PEO, POCU's successor in the 2021-2027 period. The concrete conditions depend on each individual call, and their up-to-date status is on our page about PEO and digital skills, with pointers to the official MIPE guides.
Does Northdan Soft offer funded training courses?
No — we are neither a training provider nor a funding consultant. We are a software company: where a financed project combines instruction with application implementation, we deliver the digital solutions and their technical documentation.
Similar pages
Related resources
Let’s talk about your project
Message us on WhatsApp or send an email — you talk directly to a developer.
office@northdan.com · +40 752 070 247