DIH4Society 2.0 opens CALL 1 FOR SELECTION OF PUBLIC INSTITUTION BENEFICIARIES: eligible public authorities and institutions can benefit free of charge from digital transformation services — digital maturity assessment and digital transformation diagnosis, consultancy in digital transformation, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity (at 4 levels), test before invest, training courses for staff and participation in the international digital transformation conference.
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 free of charge for eligible public institutions, which are not subject to state aid. 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.
To benefit free of charge from the DIH4Society 2.0 services, it is necessary to meet cumulative of the following conditions:
• The entity falls within the definition of a public authority, that is, any state body or body of the administrative-territorial units acting under public authority to satisfy a public interest.
• A public institution is defined as a functional structure acting under public authority and/or providing public services and financed from budgetary revenues and/or own revenues, under the conditions of the public finance law.
• Eligible public institutions include local public administration authorities, county public administration authorities, national public administration authorities or other types of public authorities. Municipal enterprises, public universities and research institutes, pre-university education, cultural, healthcare or social assistance institutions are not eligible.
• The institution has its headquarters in Romania, outside the Bucharest-Ilfov Region (Bucharest municipality and Ilfov County).
• The total value of the services requested must be between a minimum of EUR 12,000 and a maximum of EUR 100,000. The value of the contracted services may fall outside this range at contracting.
• The registration form must mandatorily include:
a) the service Starting and assessing the digital transformation journey;
b) at least one service from each of the categories Test Before Invest and Digital skills training and development. The service in the category Innovation ecosystem and networking (International Digital Transformation Conference) is optional.
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 whether the institution meets the eligibility conditions above.
See the DIH4Society 2.0 service list for public administration, to see which of them will help you meet the identified needs.
Fill in the form with the institution's information. The mandatory service is added automatically; from the Test Before Invest and Training categories choose at least one service, and the total value (between EUR 12,000 and EUR 100,000) is calculated on the spot.
At the email address indicated in the form you receive, automatically generated with the data entered: Annex 1 – Service Request and GDPR Notice and Annex A1 – Eligibility Declaration.
The legal representative signs the documents (with a qualified electronic signature or by hand, scanned legibly and also submitted in the original) and uploads them, together with the institution's establishment act, at the link received by email. The application is considered submitted on the date the signed documents are received.
Our experts analyse the institution's application, followed by an interview / discussion with the institution's representatives.
The cost estimate indicates the most suitable services to support you in achieving your objectives, the implementation timeline and their value.
We communicate and agree the collaboration and the next steps. Selected public institutions have 30 days from the notification of the decision to sign the contract for the provision of free services. Cost for the institution: 0 €.
If you notice a mistake in the documents received, do not sign them. Fill in the form again, with the correct data. In addition to the two documents generated automatically from the form (Annex 1 – Service Request and GDPR Notice and Annex A1 – Eligibility Declaration), only the institution's establishment act is submitted.
Eligible applications are scored according to the criteria below, with a maximum of 100 points (25 points for each criterion).
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 public institutions under this call is EUR 929,295.
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.
The evaluation of requests received is continuous: the information submitted at the time of application is analysed, as well as that provided during the interview / discussion with the DIH4Society 2.0 experts, according to the evaluation criteria above.
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 name of the public institution 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. Annex 1 and Annex A1 are generated automatically from the form, and the cost estimate and contract templates are for information only.
Fill in the application form or write to us — we help you choose the right services for your institution.