Companies in Centru hold something almost nobody else has: a regional digitalization call still to come

Operate a company in Alba, Brașov, Covasna, Harghita, Mureș or Sibiu county and you are sitting in the region with the best SME funding news of 2026: the second digitalization call under Action 2.2, with an announced budget of €14.1 million, has cleared public consultation and now awaits launch — a second chance that most other Romanian regions no longer offer. This guide is about using that head start intelligently. Step one, learn from the first call: grants of €15,000–200,000, the typical eligible costs (ERP, CRM, process automation, e-commerce) and the mistakes that sank applicants — vague specifications, unrealistic budgets, administrative paperwork left to the last minute. Step two, define the project now: an analysis of your company's processes, the solution architecture, the budget breakdown for the software component; we build these on the structure of the consultation draft, adjustable within hours once the final guide is published. Step three, avoid the single-basket trap: if your company holds a technology CAEN code, POCIDIF 2.1 (the national Smart Growth, Digitalization and Financial Instruments Programme) accepts applications until 30 September 2026 and does not exclude future regional bids for different projects. Step four, submit in the first week after launch — limited-budget calls consistently reward the prepared. In the meantime, the Brașov factories, Szekler workshops and Sibiu service firms we work with keep digitalizing what is urgent, because a future call is no reason to run another year on spreadsheets.