EU Funding for Startups and SMEs in 2026

Digital Europe Programme for SMEs and Startups: Calls, EDIHs and How to Join

TL;DR: Digital Europe Programme (DIGITAL) is the EU's €8.1 billion fund for putting AI, cloud, data, cybersecurity, supercomputing and digital skills to work in companies and public bodies. It does not fund research, and it rarely gives a startup a grant on its own. For most founders the way in is a European Digital Innovation Hub (EDIH) near you, which can test your technology with you for free or at a discount, then cascade funding and consortium grants. SMEs in "SME support actions" get 75% of their costs covered instead of 50%. The next big round is planned to open in Q1 2027 with a deadline in Q2 2027 (indicative). Below: a deadline calendar, a decision tree, a funding-rate table, a worked founder example and an email template for your first EDIH contact.

Most founders search the EU Funding & Tenders Portal for a Digital Europe call with their name on it, find calls written for consortia and public administrations, and give up. This guide shows the four doors a startup or SME can actually use, what each pays, and the dates that matter until the end of 2027.

All facts come from the European Commission's Digital Europe pages, the Digital Europe Work Programme 2025-2027 and its March 2026 amendment, the Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA) and the European Cybersecurity Competence Centre (ECCC). We checked them on 2 November 2026.

What the Digital Europe Programme is

According to the European Commission, DIGITAL has "an overall budget of over €8.1 billion" within the EU's long-term budget for 2021-2027. Horizon Europe pays for research. DIGITAL pays to deploy technology that already works: computing capacity, data infrastructure, AI testing facilities, cybersecurity tools, skills programmes and the network of digital innovation hubs.

Its capacity areas are supercomputing, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, advanced digital skills and the wide use of digital technologies across the economy and society. Semiconductors were added in September 2023.

The work is split between several bodies, and that matters when you search for calls:

Part of the programme	Who runs the calls	What a startup can find there
AI, cloud, data, skills, "best use of technologies"	HaDEA, for the Commission (DG CNECT)	Consortium grants, testing facilities, EdTech and health cascade calls
Cybersecurity	European Cybersecurity Competence Centre (ECCC)	Cyber deployment calls, national coordination centres
High-performance computing	EuroHPC Joint Undertaking	Access to supercomputers and AI Factories
Semiconductors	Chips Joint Undertaking; Chips Fund via the European Investment Fund	Chip design support, investment through the Chips Fund
EDIH network	Commission, national governments	Free or discounted services near you

The Commission adopted the current work programme, for 2025-2027, on 28 March 2025 and amended it in October 2025 and on 19 March 2026. It puts DIGITAL's remaining 2025-2027 budget at €3.2 billion, of which €1,305.9 million funds the main work programme and the rest goes to EuroHPC, the ECCC and the Chips Joint Undertaking. Our map of EU grants for startups shows where DIGITAL sits next to the EIC and Eurostars.

The four doors into Digital Europe for a startup

Door 1: an EDIH near you. European Digital Innovation Hubs are, in the Commission's words, "one-stop shops supporting companies and public sector organisations". The network has run since 1 January 2023 and offers four groups of services: test before invest, access to finance, training, and networking. The work programme says 151 hubs were funded under the previous programme, and that more than 136 of them provide AI and generative AI support. In October 2025 the Commission selected 83 EDIHs to renew and expand the network. 102 hubs, including those 83, also received the STEP Seal.

What it costs you: hubs publish a price list, but under the state aid rule the work programme cites, they can offer SMEs services free of charge, as long as the aid for innovation advisory and support services stays under €220,000 per company over three years. Ask your hub what is free for you before you sign anything.

Door 2: cascade funding. Some DIGITAL projects must pass most of their budget on to startups and SMEs through open calls. The work programme calls this "financial support to third parties". The clearest example in the 2026 amendment is the EdTech accelerator: three open calls for pilots, at least one a year, funding at least 20 EdTech startups or SMEs with up to €150,000 each. At least 60% of that project's budget must go to these third parties. Our guide to cascade funding explains how these open calls work and how to win one.

Door 3: a consortium grant. Most DIGITAL calls fund consortia. Startups join as technology providers or as SMEs that deploy a solution. These calls are slow and paperwork-heavy, but in "SME support actions" an SME partner gets 75% of its costs covered while everyone else gets 50%.

Door 4: testing and infrastructure. DIGITAL funds Testing and Experimentation Facilities (TEFs) for AI in agrifood, manufacturing, health and smart cities, and the 2026 amendment adds a cross-sector "Apply AI" TEF. These facilities let you validate an AI product in real-world conditions, and the AI Act lets national regulatory sandboxes send AI providers to them. EuroHPC's AI Factories give access to computing power.

What Digital Europe pays: funding rates by type of action

The work programme sets the funding rate by type of action, not by applicant. Know the type before you budget.

Type of action	Funding rate (Work Programme 2025-2027)	What it means for a startup
Simple grant	50% of eligible costs	You co-finance half from revenue or investment
SME support action	50%, but 75% for SMEs	The best rate a startup can get in a consortium
Coordination and support action	100%	Networking and policy work, rarely product money
Grant for procurement	50%	Mostly buying goods or services
Grant for financial support (cascade)	100% for the consortium; supported companies co-finance 50%	Your door 2: small amounts, simpler applications
Lump sum grant	50%	You claim a fixed amount once the work is done

Three rules catch first-time applicants:

Who can apply. Entities established in EU member states, the EEA EFTA countries (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway) and third countries associated to DIGITAL. Many AI, cloud and cybersecurity topics restrict participation further, under Article 12(5) or 12(6) of the DIGITAL Regulation. Read the "eligibility and security" line of each topic.
When money arrives. The Commission says signing a grant agreement can take "up to 9 months from the closure of the call". Don't count on DIGITAL money for next quarter's payroll.
Deadlines close at 17:00 Brussels time on the deadline day.

Digital Europe deadline calendar 2026-2027

Date	What happens	Status
1 Oct 2026	Third set of calls closed (including DIGITAL-2026-BESTUSE-10 and DIGITAL-2026-SKILLS-10)	Closed; HaDEA expects evaluations between October and December 2026
14 Jan 2027	ECCC cybersecurity calls close: CYBER-11 dual-use technologies, EU legislative requirements, national coordination centres, regional cable hubs	Open since 1 Sep 2026
Q1 2027	Fourth set of calls opens	Indicative, can be delayed up to three months
Q2 2027	Fourth set deadline	Indicative
Q3 2027	Results of the fourth set	Indicative
Q4 2027	Grant agreements signed	Indicative

The fourth set is the last common round of this work programme. After the March 2026 amendment it holds about €102.3 million, including €16 million for testing Apply AI sector applications at scale (open to private companies, "including SMEs and start-ups"), €9 million for European cloud-edge reference deployments, €7.2 million for an uptake incubator for Virtual Human Twins and AI in health, €6.8 million for a tourism data space and €19.5 million for multi-country projects. All figures are indicative until the call documents are published.

For every EU deadline in one place, see our EU grant calendar 2027, and set up alerts with our guide on how to find open EU funding calls.

Which door fits your startup

Answer these in order:

Do you have a product or prototype that uses AI, data, cloud, cybersecurity or HPC? No: start with an EDIH's training and digital maturity assessment, then look at EU grants for small businesses that fund earlier stages.
Do you need to test it before selling? Yes: an EDIH's test-before-invest service or a TEF.
Do you need a smaller amount, faster? Watch cascade calls from DIGITAL projects, such as the EdTech accelerator's pilots of up to €150,000, and from the NGI open calls if you build open-source internet technology.
Can you co-finance 25–50% and wait 9–12 months? Then a consortium grant in the fourth set is realistic. Ask your EDIH or National Contact Point to introduce you to a coordinator now, not in March.
Is your product breakthrough deep tech with its own market? Then the EIC Accelerator, not DIGITAL, is your grant. If you narrowly miss it, our guide to the Seal of Excellence shows what comes next.

Worked founder example: a computer-vision startup

A seven-person startup sells AI quality inspection for small food producers. It has paying pilots, no EU grant experience and €40,000 a month in costs.

Month 1: the CEO finds the regional EDIH in the Commission's EDIH catalogue and books a free digital maturity assessment for two of its customers. The hub offers test-before-invest time on a food-sector line.
Month 2: the hub's access-to-finance team points it to the agrifood TEF and introduces a university that is preparing a proposal for the fourth set of calls.
Month 3: the startup joins the consortium as a technology provider. In an SME support action, a €300,000 share of the budget would bring €225,000 in EU money (75%). In a simple grant, the same share would bring €150,000 (50%).
In parallel: it watches cascade calls from other DIGITAL projects, which pay smaller amounts but ask for far shorter applications than a consortium proposal.

Email template for your first EDIH contact

Subject: Test-before-invest request from [startup name], [city]

Hello [EDIH name] team,

We are [startup name], a [number]-person company in [region] building [one-line product description].
Our product uses [AI / data / cloud / cybersecurity] and is at [prototype / pilot / first sales] stage.

We would like to ask about:
1. Test-before-invest: testing [specific feature] with [type of customer or data].
2. Which of your services are free or discounted for SMEs, and your published price list.
3. Consortia you know of that are preparing proposals for the Digital Europe calls due in 2027
   and need a technology provider like us.
4. Upcoming cascade (open) calls from Digital Europe projects in our field.

Could we have a 30-minute call in the next two weeks? Our one-page summary is attached.

Best regards,
[Name], [role], [phone]

Who should apply and who can skip it

Use Digital Europe if you build or deploy AI, data, cloud, cybersecurity or HPC solutions in an eligible country, can co-finance part of your costs and like working with partners. Start with the hub: it costs you an email.

Skip the consortium grants if you need money within six months, you have no team time for a full consortium proposal, or digital tech is only a side feature of your product. Equity, angels and national grants come first: our guide to startup funding in Europe shows how EU money fits next to them. Before any proposal, run through our EU funding readiness checklist and our guide to writing an EU grant proposal.

Related EU funding guides

For new Digital Europe calls every month, read Mean CEO's EU Funding News on blog.mean.ceo. And to practise building a startup before you pitch it to a consortium, play the Fe/male Switch startup game.

FAQ

What is the Digital Europe Programme?

It is the EU programme that funds the deployment of digital technology in companies and public administrations, with an overall budget of over €8.1 billion for 2021-2027: supercomputing, AI, cybersecurity, advanced digital skills, wide use of digital technologies and, since 2023, semiconductors.

Can a startup apply to the Digital Europe Programme alone?

Rarely. Most calls fund consortia. Most startups benefit through a European Digital Innovation Hub, a cascade open call run by a funded project, a testing facility, or as an SME partner in a consortium.

What is the Digital Europe Programme funding rate for SMEs?

It depends on the type of action. Simple grants pay 50% of eligible costs. In SME support actions, SMEs get 75% while other partners get 50%. Coordination and support actions pay 100%. Companies funded through cascade calls co-finance 50% of their costs.

When is the next Digital Europe call in 2027?

The work programme plans its fourth and last set of calls to open in Q1 2027 with a deadline in Q2 2027, worth about €102.3 million after the March 2026 amendment. These dates are indicative and can move by up to three months. The ECCC cybersecurity calls close on 14 January 2027.

Are EDIH services free for SMEs?

Many are. Hubs publish a price list, and EU state aid rules let them offer SMEs advisory and support services free, up to €220,000 per company over three years. Ask your hub what applies to you.

How do I find a European Digital Innovation Hub near me?

Use the EDIH catalogue on the European Digital Innovation Hubs network website. Look up the hubs in your country or region, then contact two or three of them. Your National Contact Point for Digital Europe can also point you to one.

About the Author

Violetta Bonenkamp, also known as MeanCEO, is an experienced startup founder with an impressive educational background including an MBA and four other higher education degrees. She has over 20 years of work experience across multiple countries, including 5 years as a solopreneur and serial entrepreneur. Throughout her startup experience she has applied for multiple startup grants at the EU level, in the Netherlands and Malta, and her startups received quite a few of those. She’s been living, studying and working in many countries around the globe and her extensive multicultural experience has influenced her immensely.

Violetta Bonenkamp

2026-11-02 17:11