ADR Sud-Muntenia (Sud-Muntenia Regional Development Agency) has released for consultation the guidelines for a pilot innovation grant call, conducted together with the World Bank Group at the invitation of the European Commission's Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy. The selection includes a randomization stage, a first for Romania.
The call has a total budget of 29,882,352.94 euros, of which 25.4 million comes from the European Regional Development Fund. Grants range from 30,000 to 100,000 euros, and funding can reach up to 100% of eligible expenses, within the limits of de minimis aid.
The element that makes this call unique in the Romanian landscape is the methodology. The selection includes a randomization stage, namely a randomized controlled trial, through which a portion of the eligible applicants are selected randomly by county. The goal is the rigorous measurement of the real impact of grants on company performance.
The process has two distinct stages. The first is the pre-selection of project ideas via an online questionnaire, conducted between July 20 and September 20, 2026. Only after this does the randomization follow and, subsequently, the actual submission in MySMIS, the date of which was not confirmed at the time of writing.
Eligible entities are micro-enterprises, SMEs, and partnerships from Argeș, Călărași, Dâmbovița, Giurgiu, Ialomița, Prahova, and Teleorman. The funding targets investments in research and innovation activities at the firm level.
For companies in the region, the entry effort is unusually low in the first stage: completing an online questionnaire, not building a full dossier. It is an excellent effort-to-benefit ratio, and the September 20, 2026 deadline is still open.
Randomization as a selection method is counterintuitive for the business environment, but it has a solid methodological justification. Without a control group consisting of eligible firms that did not receive funding, it is impossible to determine whether the improvement in beneficiaries' performance is due to the grant or to the fact that good companies apply more often for funding anyway.
The practical implication for applicants is that, beyond the eligibility threshold, the quality of the dossier matters less than in classic calls. The preparation effort is, therefore, disproportionately small compared to the amount that can be obtained. For a firm in Sud-Muntenia that meets the basic conditions, completing the pre-selection questionnaire is one of the most cost-effective administrative decisions possible at this time.
What you need to know
- Budget: 29,882,352.94 EUR
- Grant: 30,000 - 100,000 EUR, funding up to 100% within de minimis limits
- Eligible: micro-enterprises, SMEs, and partnerships from Argeș, Călărași, Dâmbovița, Giurgiu, Ialomița, Prahova, Teleorman
- Pre-selection via online questionnaire: July 20 - September 20, 2026. OPEN
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