DIH4Society 2.0 opens CALL 1 FOR SELECTION OF SME BENEFICIARIES: eligible SMEs can benefit free of charge from digital transformation services — digital maturity assessment, consultancy in digital transformation, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity, test before invest, training courses, support for attracting funding and networking events.
The services are funded 50% by the European Commission through the Digital Europe Programme and 50% by the Romanian State through POCIDIF, Action 6.1, and are granted as state aid for innovation. DIH4Society 2.0 is coordinated by a consortium made up of the Cluj IT Association, the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, the Bistrița-Năsăud Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Craiova.
Since the services you will benefit from free of charge are funded under a state aid scheme for innovation, it is necessary to meet cumulative of the following conditions:
• The company has its headquarters or a branch in Romania at the time the aid is paid. Companies whose registered office and place of service delivery are exclusively in the Bucharest-Ilfov Region (Bucharest municipality and Ilfov County) are not eligible.
• The company (at the time the aid is granted) falls into one of the categories: micro-enterprise, small enterprise or medium-sized enterprise.
• The company does not fall into the category of undertaking in difficulty.
• The company has no net budgetary obligations (the difference between overdue payment obligations to the budget and amounts to be recovered from the budget):
a) greater than 1/12 of the obligations due in the last 12 months — in the case of the tax clearance certificate issued by the National Agency for Fiscal Administration;
b) greater than 1/6 of the total obligations due in the last six months — in the case of the tax clearance certificate issued by the local public authorities.
• The company is not in insolvency, bankruptcy, judicial reorganisation, dissolution, liquidation or temporary suspension of activity, nor in similar situations resulting from a procedure of the same nature provided for by national legislation or regulations.
• The company is not subject to a recovery order following a previous decision of the competent bodies declaring state aid unlawful and/or incompatible with the common market or, if the applicant has been the subject of such a decision, it must already have been enforced and the aid fully recovered, including the related recovery interest.
• The legal representative has not been convicted by a final judgment (res judicata) of an offence relating to professional conduct, fraud, corruption, participation in a criminal organisation or any other illegal activities to the detriment of the financial interests of the European Communities.
• The legal representative has not committed grave professional misconduct, proven by any means that the contracting authority can justify.
• The legal representative is not subject to a conflict of interest.
• The legal representative is not guilty of seriously misleading the OIPSI and/or the state aid sub-administrators by providing incorrect information during the EDIH service beneficiary selection process.
• The aid granted has an incentive effect.
• The total value of state aid for innovation consultancy services and innovation support services received by the company over a period of 3 fiscal years, including the current fiscal year, cumulated with the value of the services requested, does not exceed EUR 220,000. Services previously received from an EDIH, including under the DIH4Society 1.0 project, are also taken into account.
• The total value of the services requested must be between a minimum of EUR 3,000 and a maximum of EUR 70,000. The final value of the contracted services may fall outside this range, depending on the needs identified at contracting, the availability of services, the implementation period required or any changes to the contracting conditions.
• The registration form must mandatorily include:
a) the services Starting and assessing the digital transformation journey and Assistance with checking eligibility for funding;
b) at least one service from each service category of the DIH4Society 2.0 Service List (Test Before Invest, Digital skills training and development, Access to funding and Innovation ecosystem and networking).
• The company's digitalisation objectives can be supported by services associated with at least one of the three technology specialisation areas of DIH4Society 2.0: cybersecurity, artificial intelligence (AI) or digital transformation. If the company's objectives cannot be matched with these areas, the application is not eligible and the DIH4Society 2.0 team will recommend other EDIHs in Romania and/or Europe.
Important: failure to meet any of the eligibility conditions described above leads to disqualification of the expression of interest.
Digital transformation is a medium- or long-term journey. You have the opportunity to go through it accompanied by the DIH4Society 2.0 experts, by following these steps:
Before applying, check your company's eligibility, based on the criteria above.
See the DIH4Society 2.0 service list, to see which of them help you meet the identified needs.
Fill in the registration form. Mandatory services are added automatically; from each category choose at least one service, and the total value of the services is calculated on the spot.
At the email address indicated in the form you receive, automatically generated with the data entered, Annex 1 – State Aid Request and GDPR Notice and Annex A1 – Eligibility Declaration.
The legal representative signs the documents, preferably with a qualified electronic signature, and uploads them through the submission form received by email. Documents signed by hand are scanned legibly, uploaded and also submitted in the original. The application is considered submitted on the date the signed documents are received.
Our experts analyse the company's needs together with you and we jointly agree the services in the contract, which may differ from those requested in the form.
After preliminary acceptance, submit Annexes B1, B2 and B3. To verify eligibility we may also request additional documents and we support you in completing the file.
You receive the contract and the cost estimate, with the services, their duration and value. The contract is signed within 10 days of the notification of the selection decision. Your cost: 0 €.
If you notice a mistake in the documents received, do not sign them. Fill in the form again, with the correct data. There is no need to download or complete other documents to apply: Annex 1 – State Aid Request and GDPR Notice and Annex A1 – Eligibility Declaration are generated automatically from the form.
Eligible applications are scored according to the criteria below. To be eligible for the free services, the application must score a minimum of 10 points on Criterion 1.
You can register to benefit from the free services starting from the opening date of the call: 22 October 2026. The call is open continuously until the closing date, namely 31 December 2028, within the limit of the available budget. The total budget allocated to services for SMEs under this call is up to EUR 2,474,677.
The DIH4Society 2.0 consortium reserves the right to close the call early if the budget is exhausted or if the services offered are modified. For applications submitted by 31.12.2028, service contracts may also be signed after 1 January 2029, having regard to Art. 10 para. (2) of the scheme approved by OMIPE No 3151/2023, as amended by OMIPE No 440/2026.
Applications are evaluated continuously, in weekly sessions. Complete applications received by Friday at 23:59 are evaluated the following week, in order of receipt, according to the evaluation and tie-breaking criteria above. The evaluation result is communicated to you by email after the end of the session in which the application was evaluated.
If you believe that the request was rejected because of an error, you can write to us at contact@dih4society.ro, in Romanian, within 3 calendar days of receiving the email with the selection result. The appeal must include the company name and contact details, the subject of the appeal and a clear and detailed argument, including any supporting documents. The DIH4Society 2.0 consortium examines appeals within a maximum of 7 calendar days of receipt; if more time is needed, we will inform you by email.
The Applicant's Guide contains all the details of the call. Annexes B1–B3 are submitted only after preliminary acceptance of the application, and the contract and cost estimate templates are for information only.
Fill in the application form or write to us — we help you choose the right services for your company.