Where the money is: EU and Slovak grants for ERP, AI and digitalization in 2026

Last year we helped a client apply for a SIEA voucher for their CRM system. They approved 85% of costs. The client's out-of-pocket for the entire CRM project: €4,200. Three months later they had a working system and a sales pipeline they could actually track.

That's real money left on the table if you don't apply. And that voucher is one of five programmes we'll cover here.

Slovakia and the EU have earmarked billions for digitalization in 2026. The challenge is that most of this funding sits buried in bureaucratic portals, spread across agencies with overlapping mandates and different acronyms for similar things. This post maps out the five programmes that matter for IT projects right now, with actual numbers, actual deadlines, and zero jargon.

The Slovak programmes

If your company is registered in Slovakia and you want to digitalize operations, these three programmes should be your first stop. They're faster to apply for, less competitive than EU-level calls, and designed specifically for the kind of projects most companies actually need.

SIEA innovation vouchers

The Slovak Innovation and Energy Agency (SIEA) opened a new call for dual innovation vouchers on April 1, 2026. The range: €3,000 to €30,000 per project. Co-funding rate: up to 85% of eligible costs.

What qualifies: CRM implementation, process automation, AI chatbots, data analytics, custom software development. Anything that pairs your company with a research organization and produces a measurable result.

The application is online. Decisions come in weeks, not months. You don't need a grant consultant charging €5,000 to fill out the form. The paperwork is a price quote, a cooperation agreement with a research organization, and a few pages describing what you want to build.

The research organization requirement sounds like a barrier, but it isn't. Slovak technical universities, the Slovak Academy of Sciences, and dozens of accredited private R&D firms are on the list. Most of them have dedicated contacts for industry partnerships and have done voucher projects before. Reach out, describe your project, and they'll tell you if it fits.

The math: a €28,000 project at 85% co-funding means you pay €4,200. No bank loan gives you that kind of return. Previous calls exhausted their allocation within two months, so if you're interested, don't wait for September.

EXPANDI 4.0

EXPANDI 4.0 targets SMEs digitalizing production and operations. The grant component covers up to 30% of costs for ERP, CRM, MES, WMS systems, cloud solutions, and AI tools.

This is for bigger projects. Think €50,000 to €200,000 implementations. A manufacturing company with 80 employees rolling out a €120,000 ERP system gets €36,000 back. That's the difference between "we'll do it next year" and "we'll start in Q3."

What changed from earlier calls: AI and cloud costs are now eligible. Two years ago, you couldn't fund an AI chatbot through EXPANDI. Now you can. Same for cloud infrastructure costs related to the implementation.

Requirements are straightforward: SME status, a project with a clear digital component, and delivery within the programme timeline. Applications are rolling, but the 2026 budget is finite. I'd recommend applying early rather than waiting for autumn.

DIGITRANS

DIGITRANS isn't a grant. It's a national digital transformation programme that takes 500 enterprises per year through maturity assessment, transformation planning, and expert mentoring. The programme runs until 2030.

Why it matters: the output is a concrete transformation plan you can use to apply for EXPANDI or SIEA vouchers. Many companies make the mistake of chasing grants before they know what they actually need. They implement a CRM because "there was a grant for it," when the real bottleneck was warehouse management. DIGITRANS helps you figure out where to spend before you spend.

If you don't know where to start, start here. There's no cost, and the assessment alone is worth the time.

The EU programmes

These operate at a different scale. More money, more competition, longer timelines, English-language applications. But if your project fits, the funding can be substantial.

Digital Europe Programme: €1.3 billion (2025-2027)

The European Commission adopted the Digital Europe work programme for 2025-2027 on March 28, 2025. Total budget: €1.3 billion across four pillars: AI, cybersecurity, digital skills, and deployment of digital technologies.

For Slovak companies, the most relevant calls cover industrial AI deployment and cybersecurity operations centres. These grants don't fund your CRM or company website. They fund predictive maintenance AI models, industrial automation systems, and security operations centres. If your company develops software in any of these areas, this is likely the largest single source of funding available to you.

The upside: you apply directly to the Commission, no national intermediary. The downside: competition from across the EU, evaluation cycles measured in months, and success rates around 15 to 20%. But the grants run into hundreds of thousands of euros, sometimes more.

EIC 2026: over €1.4 billion

The European Innovation Council has a 2026 budget exceeding €1.4 billion. Two main instruments: EIC Pathfinder for early-stage research and EIC Accelerator for scaling, with the Accelerator offering a blended grant and equity package up to €17.5 million.

This is not a mass programme. EIC targets deep-tech startups and scale-ups with real products, real customers, and European growth ambitions. From Slovakia, only a handful of companies have succeeded in the Accelerator in recent years. If you have an AI product with traction and a plan to expand beyond Slovak borders, it's worth the effort. If you build internal business systems or e-commerce sites, your time is better spent on SIEA.

Cut-offs happen roughly twice a year. Watch the EIC portal for 2026 dates.

How to pick

Two questions do most of the work.

What's your project budget? Under €30,000: SIEA vouchers. Between €30,000 and €200,000: EXPANDI 4.0. Over €500,000: Digital Europe or EIC.

What are you building? CRM, ERP, process automation: SIEA or EXPANDI. AI product for export: EIC. Industrial AI or cybersecurity: Digital Europe. Not sure what you need: DIGITRANS first, funding second.

The deadlines

SIEA vouchers opened April 1, 2026. Previous calls closed within two months once allocation ran out.

EXPANDI 4.0 is rolling, but the 2026 budget is not unlimited. Earlier is better.

Digital Europe opens in rounds. Next round expected Q2 2026. Monitor the Funding & Tenders portal.

EIC Accelerator cut-offs happen twice a year. Check the EIC website for exact dates.

If your project fits, don't wait. The worst that happens is someone approves 85% of your costs.

Need help picking a programme or putting together an application? Get in touch. We'll tell you what makes sense for your project.