EU Funding

Maintaining the software over the project's durability period

The project does not end with the last payment: during the durability period the beneficiary has to demonstrate that the funded software works and is genuinely being used.

Northdan Soft is a software supplier, not a funding consultancy, and is not affiliated with any managing authority or development agency. Programme information is indicative — always check the conditions in the programme's official applicant guide.

The durability period is the part of the contract nobody talks about at submission and the part that hurts most at inspection. Its legal basis is Article 65 of Regulation (EU) 2021/1060, and the concrete term is set by each programme's applicant guide: under POCIDIF Action 2.1 it runs for three years from the final payment to the beneficiary or from the completion of implementation, whichever comes last. Throughout that period the beneficiary is obliged to keep the investment alive: the application has to run, it has to be used in the company's daily work, and it has to be shown to monitoring visits. For software that raises problems a machine never has. Operating systems move on, browsers change, certificates expire, tax legislation rewrites the reports — and an unmaintained application dies quietly in two or three years. If the solution no longer starts when the monitoring officer is standing in your office, the conversation can end in financial corrections, recovered in proportion to the period of non-compliance. Northdan covers that exposure with a maintenance commitment sized on your project's durability interval, taken on from the dossier stage, where the guides already ask you to demonstrate the sustainability of the investment.

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How we help

The application stays compatible with its ecosystem

We update the components of the solution periodically so it keeps working on the new versions of the systems, browsers and external services it depends on.

Incident response with agreed times

Faults are remedied under a clear support agreement, so periods of downtime stay short and are documented rather than argued about.

Evidence prepared for monitoring

We keep the record of interventions and of how the solution is used, so at verification visits you can prove immediately that the investment is alive and in service.

A commitment made at dossier stage

We issue the maintenance declaration or annex requested at submission for the sustainability chapter, aligned with the interval the programme imposes.

What durability means for a software solution

The typical obligations in financing contracts, per the guides: keeping the investment operational and on the company's books, using it for the purpose stated in the project, holding the indicators you committed to, and accepting monitoring visits throughout the period established. The concrete duration differs from programme to programme and is read out of your own financing contract.

Translated for software: the application has to start, be populated with real working data, and be demonstrable to a monitoring officer. A system bought, accepted and abandoned once the money was reimbursed does not satisfy the condition of use — and that becomes visible within seconds during a visit.

What a suitable maintenance agreement includes

The corrective component covers failures: errors, freezes, access problems, with reaction times fixed by the agreement. The preventive component keeps the system in step with its environment: security updates, compatibility with new infrastructure versions, certificate renewals, verified backups.

For funded projects we add a specific layer: the intervention log and the periodic operating reports — precisely the material you ask a supplier for the moment a monitoring visit is announced. The difference between commercial maintenance and maintenance designed for durability sits entirely in that documentation.

When and how the service is contracted

The most natural moment is alongside the supply contract: many guides already ask, in the sustainability chapter, how the investment will be kept up after completion. But we also take over solutions that are already inside their durability period, including ones built by other suppliers, following a technical audit of the application.

The agreement is sized on the interval remaining in the durability period rather than on a calendar year, and the audit comes first because a response-time commitment on an unknown system is a promise we cannot support.

Frequently asked questions

How long does the durability period last on digitalization projects?

The legal basis is Article 65 of Regulation (EU) 2021/1060 and the exact term is set by each programme's guide. Under POCIDIF Action 2.1 it is three years from the final payment to the beneficiary or from the completion of implementation, whichever comes last; the Romanian DigiLocal norms for local government require a minimum of three years with an annual declaration. For any other programme, check your own financing contract.

What does the company risk if the funded application no longer runs at monitoring?

An investment that does not function or is not used during the durability period can trigger recovery of the support, in whole or in part, proportionally to the period of non-compliance. The risk is avoidable with routine upkeep — far cheaper than any correction.

Will you take over maintenance of software built by another supplier?

Yes, on one condition: we run a technical audit first — code, infrastructure, documentation — so we know what we are signing up for. After the audit you get honest conclusions: what we can maintain, what has to be repaired first and at what cost, including for solutions already inside their durability window.

Is maintenance during the durability period an eligible cost?

Under POCIDIF Action 2.1 it is not: the guide states that the beneficiary bears all operating and maintenance costs of the investment throughout durability. Budget the service as an operating cost of the company — as a rule of thumb 15–20% per year of the development cost for custom software. For any other programme the treatment is verified in its own guide.