Available funding in Romania
Background information
Funding opportunities for upskilling and reskilling to support the digital competences of individuals and organizations are available in the form of loans, grants, and financial instruments. For the period 2021 – 2026, most of the activities in digital transformation are financed through Recovery and Resilience facility but also as activities in Horizon, Erasmus+, ESIF and EEA grant schemes. You may find more on the page of the Romania’s National Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition.
Recovery and Resilience Plan
Romania has developed a Recovery and Resilience Plan consists of 107 investment measures and 64 reforms, which will help Romania become more sustainable, resilient, and adaptable to the challenges and opportunities posed by the green and digital transitions. The plan is supported by an estimated €14.24 billion in grants and €14.94 billion in loans. 41% of the plan will contribute to the green transition, while 20.5% of it will support the digital transition.
Digital challenges for Romania include connectivity especially in rural areas, lack of digital skills, below EU average digitalisation of schools, households, companies and public services. Existing capacities are not sufficient to ensure a high level of network security and adequate cyber risk management.
To achieve a digital transition, Romania's recovery and resilience plan involves investments and reforms aimed at digitalising public administration in key areas such as justice, employment, social protection, environment, civil service management, skills development, public procurement, cybersecurity, tax, and customs. The plan also aims to establish a secure government cloud infrastructure and promote eID deployment. The digitalisation of public administration will cost €1.5 billion. Additionally, the plan involves digitalising healthcare with €470 million investments to develop an integrated e-Health system that connects over 25,000 healthcare providers and telemedicine systems. Furthermore, the plan includes investments of €881 million for digitalisation of education, with a focus on improving digital pedagogical skills, educational content, and equipment and resources, including in universities.
As an example project, the RRP will support delivery of electronic identity cards to 8.5 million Romanians. This e-ID card is part of a larger plan of investments and structural reforms aimed at expanding virtual access to essential services like healthcare and education. The goal is to enhance the storage and sharing of citizens' information to facilitate a more personalised and effective interaction with public institutions.
Increasing digital competences of public service and digital education for citizens reform aims to support the digitalisation of the economy and the transition to industry, by aligning the labour market to the latest developments in this sector. The reform refers to amending the Classifications of Occupations Code, including the definition of new digital occupations, in line with other EU countries.
National Funding
Funding schemes for libraries to become digital skills hubs aims to improve the fundamental digital skills of citizens residing in disadvantaged communities with limited access to training. The investment comprises of the transformation of 105 libraries into hubs for the development of digital skills, as well as additional funding for the replacement/upgrade of IT equipment in 1030 libraries. The investment will provide 100,000 citizens from disadvantaged communities with training in digital literacy, communication, media literacy, digital content creation, digital security, and digital entrepreneurship. The call for applications has been issued, and initiatives can be submitted until June 2026.
Modernisation of "Gheorghe Şincai" Bihor County Library into a digital skills hub consists of two components: the extension, renovation and endowment of the "Gheorghe Şincai" Bihor County Library, and its digitalisation. The project also includes the purchasing of 20 workstations for digital training and of high-performance equipment for scanning books. In addition, the project also provides for the extension, renovation and equipping of libraries in Sânmartin, Sântandrei and Oșorhei, which will be transformed into hubs for the development of digital skills. 26 libraries in Bihor County will also be equipped with the necessary infrastructure to train in basic digital skills the population from disadvantaged backgrounds.
The objective of the provision of facilities for pre-university classrooms and school laboratories/workshops is to provide the facilities necessary to meet quality standards in classrooms and in school laboratories/workshops, including the provision of specialised teaching facilities and equipment for disadvantaged pupils and students with special educational needs. The provision of classroom and laboratory facilities shall be decentralised among schools, county school inspectorates, and local public authorities. 75,000 classrooms and 10,000 school science laboratories are to be furnished.
Different funding options are also available on the Digital Skills and Jobs platform, you may find a listing for Romania on this link.
