The Digital Europe Program has opened the tenth call for proposals, with an allocation of over 63 million euros for advanced digital skills, artificial intelligence, and digital health. The deadline is October 1, 2026, and the call is still open.
The calls were published on the Funding and Tenders portal on April 10, 2026, and effectively opened for submission on April 21. The package includes the components DIGITAL-2026-SKILLS-10 and DIGITAL-2026-BESTUSE-10.
Allocations by topic are heterogeneous. The EdTech Accelerator, coded DIGITAL-2026-SKILLS-10-EDTECH, has a budget of 2.7 million euros. The component for electronic health record exchange capacity has 14.4 million euros. The remainder is distributed among the other topics in the package.
Digital Europe differs from Horizon Europe in an essential aspect for companies: it does not fund research, but implementation. Scientific novelty is not required, but rather the large-scale adoption of already mature technologies. For a software or IT services company, this is a significantly lower barrier to entry.
Eligible entities include SMEs, public authorities, training institutions, and organizations from member states and associated states. Funding rates typically range between 50% and 100%, depending on the type of action and the nature of the beneficiary.
With a deadline of October 1, 2026, at 17:00 Brussels time, the call remains one of the few European opportunities still open at this moment for companies in the digital sector. The remaining period is sufficient for building a consortium if the process starts immediately.
A useful distinction for companies hesitating between European programs: Horizon Europe funds what has never been done before, Digital Europe funds what has never been implemented at scale. The first requires scientific novelty demonstrated through publications and patents. The second requires execution capacity, partnerships, and an adoption plan. For an IT services or solution integration company, the second approach is much more realistic.
Another practical advantage is the structure of the consortia. In Digital Europe, partnerships frequently include public authorities, hospitals, universities, and training centers, which means a Romanian company can enter a consortium as a technical provider, a role for which competition is lower than for the position of scientific coordinator.
What you need to know
- Budget: over 63 million EUR per package
- Focus: implementation of mature technologies, not research
- Eligible: SMEs, public authorities, training institutions from the EU and associated states
- Deadline: October 1, 2026, 17:00. Call OPEN
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