EU Funding for AI Agents and Automation in Romania, 2026

First, what has expired, so you do not waste weeks

PNRR component 9, investment 3, "Digitalisation of SMEs", the 20,000 to 100,000 EUR grant: the call is closed and the implementation deadline was last extended to 29 May 2026, which has passed. If someone pitches you a project funded by it today, their information is two months out of date.

ADR Centru: 15,000 to 200,000 EUR, still in public consultation

Action 2.2 "Digital enterprises", second call, with a total budget of 14.1 million EUR. Grants run from 15,000 to 200,000 EUR with a minimum 10% contribution from the company, and AI solutions and chatbots are explicitly listed as eligible costs. Note the stage carefully: as of 31 July 2026 the applicant guide is a public-consultation draft rather than a final approved version, and no submission dates are published on the official page. The regional programme's estimated calendar, quoted in the press, said June to August 2026, but that is an estimate, not a deadline.

• Eligible counties: Alba, Brasov, Covasna, Harghita, Mures, Sibiu.
• Who qualifies: micro, small and medium companies outside the IT sector. Around 130 activity codes are excluded, including IT, retail and agriculture.
• Conditions: at least one closed fiscal year, at least one employee, positive operating profit, and the company registered before 3 January 2025.
• Eligible costs that concern us directly: AI solutions and chatbots, ERP, CRM, RPA, PLM, VR and AR, IoT, digital communication with suppliers and customers, staff training on digital tools, and advisory services.

Checked directly on the ADR Centru site on 31 July 2026: the call is listed as being in public consultation, 28.04 to 20.05.2026, with the guide and annexes in consultation form. We found no announcement of a final approved guide and no open submission session. If someone tells you that you have until August, ask them for the source. We are not going to invent a deadline to make this sound urgent.

PoCIDIF: 200,000 to 3,000,000 EUR, closing 30 September

Action 2.1, advanced technologies, with a total budget of 48.8 million EUR. Grants run from 200,000 to 3,000,000 EUR for hardware and up to 1,500,000 EUR for software solutions. Submissions are open between 30 June and 30 September 2026, 17:00, through MySMIS2021. Bucharest is not eligible.

Covered technologies: artificial intelligence systems, robotics and cognitive agents, IoT, extended reality, microelectronics, and blockchain for traceability. The phrase "cognitive agents" in the call describes exactly the kind of system the rest of this site is about.

The 200,000 EUR floor makes this suitable for large projects, not for automating a single workflow. If you are a small company looking at it, check first whether your real project reaches that floor, otherwise you will spend months on an application that cannot qualify.

EDIH: not cash, but subsidised services

The seven European Digital Innovation Hubs in Romania do not put money in your account. They provide free or subsidised services: "Test Before Invest" on AI, innovation advisory, and training. Funding intensity reaches up to 100% of eligible advisory costs, and the programme can run to the end of 2029.

We are telling you this even though it competes with us: if all you want is to test whether AI makes sense in your company, and you qualify for an EDIH, you can get that subsidised, possibly in full. Go there first. We sell building and running the agent, not the right to ask the question.

What this means for your actual budget

Funded and unfunded are two different worlds, not the same budget in a different mood. Without funding, a small Romanian company realistically sits between a few hundred and a few thousand euro for an automation. With ADR Centru or PoCIDIF behind it, the same project can run to tens or hundreds of thousands.

That is why the second question we ask in a serious conversation is whether you have applied, or are applying, for funding. Not to inflate the price, but because the answer changes what is worth building: on a small budget you build the one workflow that pays for itself quickly, while with funding behind you the whole system can be built at once.

Where we fit

We build the agent or automation that goes into the project, and we write the technical part in the language the file requires. We are not funding consultants and we will not write your application, but we work with your consultant and give them what they need to write it.

Our prices are on the pricing page, and what an agent actually does inside a company is explained with concrete examples on this page.