European Digital Innovation Hub — Test Before Invest

European Digital Innovation Hubs, including Ireland's AI-focused hub activity delivered with CeADAR, offer Test Before Invest services: subsidised access to expertise, experimentation environments and technical validation so an organisation can prove an AI concept works before committing capital to a full build. Organisations with a promising AI idea and a genuine technical unknown — model accuracy, data sufficiency, or feasibility on their own data.

What this scheme funds

Subsidised access to AI expertise and test environments so you can validate a concept before you fund a build.

  • Technical validation and proof-of-concept experimentation
  • Access to specialist AI expertise and infrastructure
  • Data suitability and model feasibility testing
  • Guidance on EU AI Act obligations and trustworthy AI practice
  • Skills and awareness support for the internal team

What it does not fund

These costs are routinely ruled ineligible under this scheme.

  • Production deployment and ongoing operation
  • Commercial software licences
  • Business-as-usual IT work

Who is eligible

Eligibility is decided by European Digital Innovation Hub, not by Digital Bridge.

  • SME or public sector organisation, subject to the hub's current criteria
  • A defined AI question that experimentation can genuinely answer
  • Willingness to engage technically with the hub team

How to apply

Typical end-to-end timeline: Engagement typically begins within weeks of a maturity assessment, with proof-of-concept work running over one to three months depending on data readiness.

  • Identify the hub covering your sector and region
  • Submit an expression of interest describing the technical question
  • Complete the hub's digital maturity assessment
  • Agree the scope of the Test Before Invest engagement
  • Run the experiment, then use the findings to scope the production build

Evidence you will need

Applications are usually delayed by missing paperwork rather than by weak projects.

  • Description of the AI use case and the specific unknown
  • Indication of available data and its condition
  • Digital maturity assessment completion

Why applications get rejected

The recurring reasons assessors give under this scheme.

  • The request is really for free production development
  • No experimental question — the answer is already known
  • No usable data available for the test

What Digital Bridge delivers under this scheme

Illustrative net cost applies the published rate (Services provided free or at heavily subsidised rates) to our published engagement bands. It is arithmetic, not an offer of funding.

  • Production engineering of a validated proof of concept — list From €15,000, illustrative net cost Hub validates; the production build is separately funded

Why would I use a hub instead of paying an integrator to prototype?

Because if the honest technical question is 'will this even work on our data', a subsidised experiment is the cheaper way to find out. We will tell a client to do exactly that when it applies. Where the risk is integration and operations rather than model feasibility, a hub proof of concept will not answer it and a properly engineered pilot will.

Does a proof of concept become the production system?

Almost never, and treating it as production is one of the most expensive mistakes we see. A proof of concept is built to answer a question fast. Production needs error handling, access control, audit logging, monitoring, rollback and a support model.

Source and last review

Scheme parameters checked against European Digital Innovation Hubs — EU Commission (https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/activities/edihs) on 2026-08-18. Reviewed quarterly. Next scheduled review: November 2026. Digital Bridge is a supplier, not the awarding body. Eligibility, approval and payment are decided solely by the funding body named on each scheme. Figures below are the published scheme parameters as at the review date shown, and net costs are arithmetic illustrations of the published rate applied to our published prices. Always confirm current rules with the funder before you commit to any spend, because expenditure incurred before an application is received is almost always ineligible.