Enterprise Ireland Digital Transition Fund

The Digital Transition Fund supports Irish companies adopting digital technologies — automation, data platforms, digital manufacturing and AI — as part of a defined transformation project. Support is typically up to 50% of eligible cost, with the exact rate and ceiling set by the call and by company size and location. Client companies with a costed digital transformation plan, not a shopping list of tools.

What this scheme funds

Up to 50% toward a defined digital transformation project, including AI adoption.

  • Digital and automation technology adoption
  • External implementation expertise
  • Data infrastructure required by the project
  • Training tied to the transformation

What it does not fund

These costs are routinely ruled ineligible under this scheme.

  • Routine IT replacement
  • Ongoing software subscriptions beyond eligible limits
  • Costs incurred before approval

Who is eligible

Eligibility is decided by Enterprise Ireland, not by Digital Bridge.

  • Enterprise Ireland client company
  • A transformation project with a measured current state and target state
  • Ability to co-fund the balance

How to apply

Typical end-to-end timeline: Typically eight to sixteen weeks end to end, dominated by the quality of the business case.

  • Establish the baseline metrics before you apply
  • Agree scope with your development adviser
  • Obtain a work-package-level fixed quotation from each supplier
  • Submit and wait for written approval

Evidence you will need

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

  • Baseline and target metrics
  • Supplier quotations by work package
  • Project plan
  • Financials

Why applications get rejected

The recurring reasons assessors give under this scheme.

  • No measured baseline
  • Project is procurement rather than transformation
  • Retrospective expenditure

What Digital Bridge delivers under this scheme

Illustrative net cost applies the published rate (Up to 50% of eligible cost for most applicants) to our published engagement bands. It is arithmetic, not an offer of funding.

  • Process automation and systems integration programme — list a fixed quote, illustrative net cost ≈ 50% of the approved eligible portion

Who decides this grant, and what we are responsible for

Enterprise Ireland decides eligibility, approval and payment under this scheme. Digital Bridge supplies the work and the documentation an assessor asks for from the supplier side.

  • Digital Bridge does not administer, assess, approve, pay or appeal any grant. Every decision is made by the funding body named on the scheme, under its own published rules.
  • This section is general information, not financial, tax, legal or grant-writing advice. It is not an application, a pre-approval, or any form of assurance that you will be funded.
  • Scheme rates, ceilings and eligibility change without notice and several supports are administered locally, so your Local Enterprise Office or agency may apply different rules to the ones published here. Confirm everything with the funder in writing before you commit.
  • Our questionnaire is a deterministic guide based only on the answers you give. It cannot see your accounts, your sector classification, your state-aid position or your previous awards, so it can suggest a scheme you are ultimately found ineligible for.
  • If an application is refused, delayed, reduced or clawed back, our fees for work you have instructed remain payable. We recommend you do not instruct chargeable work until your funder confirms in writing what it will support.
  • Costs incurred before a funder receives your application are almost always ineligible. Timing is your responsibility, and we will always tell you when we think you should wait.

How the Digital Transition Fund works in practice

The Digital Transition Fund is the larger, more strategic end of Enterprise Ireland's digital supports. It targets substantive digitalisation of a manufacturing or internationally traded services business — connected production, data infrastructure, integrated systems — rather than discrete tools. Applications are assessed on strategic fit and on whether the company can absorb the change, which means governance and internal capability get real scrutiny. Projects of this size fail on organisational grounds far more often than technical ones: no internal owner, no data governance, no plan for the people whose work changes. A strong application answers those questions before an assessor asks them.

What we do as the supplier on the quote

For a transition-scale project we insist on three things in the scope: a named internal owner with decision authority, a phased plan where each phase produces something usable on its own, and an explicit statement of what integrates with what. Big-bang digital programmes with a single distant delivery date are the ones that get abandoned halfway. We also document the data position early — where records live, who owns them, what condition they are in — because data quality is what determines whether the second half of a programme like this is possible at all. That assessment can be uncomfortable reading, and it is better read at the start.

What does the Digital Transition Fund expect to see?

This fund is aimed at genuine transition rather than at replacing a system with a newer version of the same system. Assessors are reading for a change in how the business operates: new data flowing to people who could not previously see it, a manual chain removed, a capability the company did not have. Applications that describe a licence purchase, however large, present poorly. Two practical points. First, record a baseline before you apply — the cycle times, the error rates, the hours — because the reporting at the end will ask for the comparison. Second, name the internal owner. Digital transitions funded without someone accountable for adoption tend to deliver software that is installed but not used.

How does this differ from the Digital Process Innovation Grant?

They overlap and the names change over time. Treat the Digital Transition Fund as the umbrella under which digitalisation calls sit, and ask your adviser which specific instrument is currently open for your project.

Is this fund open to any company digitalising its operations?

No. It is aimed at Enterprise Ireland's client base and at strategic transitions in manufacturing and internationally traded services. Smaller or local-market businesses should look to Local Enterprise Office supports instead. Check your eligibility before investing time in a proposal.

Source and last review

Scheme parameters checked against Enterprise Ireland — Digital Transition (https://www.enterprise-ireland.com/en/supports) on 2026-08-21. 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.

Who is ready to apply for the Digital Transition Fund?

This fund suits Enterprise Ireland client companies with a costed digital transformation plan already in hand — automation, data platforms, digital manufacturing or AI adoption tied to a measured current state and a stated target state — rather than a company that simply wants to buy some new software. Support runs up to 50% of eligible cost for most applicants, though the exact rate and ceiling depend on the specific call, company size and location, so confirm the live parameters with your adviser rather than assuming a fixed figure. Applications stall most often for the same reason: no measured baseline exists before the project starts, so the application cannot show what is changing, or the project reads as routine IT replacement rather than transformation. Establish baseline metrics — cycle times, error rates, manual hours, whatever the project genuinely intends to move — before writing anything, then build the plan around closing that specific gap. Retrospective spend is not eligible, so nothing should be committed before written approval.

What documentation and supplier evidence does the fund expect?

Beyond the baseline and target metrics, the fund expects a project plan and a fixed, work-package-level quotation from each supplier involved, not a single lump-sum figure. For a Digital Bridge-delivered project — typically process automation or systems integration work in the a fixed quote to a fixed quote range depending on scope — we would break the quote into named work packages, each with its own deliverable and price, so an assessor can evaluate them individually rather than trusting one bundled number. We also state plainly what the project will not change, since a scope that claims to transform everything at once is usually read with scepticism. Expect the process to run eight to sixteen weeks end to end, driven mainly by how well-evidenced the business case is rather than by administrative delay. Have company financials and tax clearance ready alongside the technical documents. As with every Enterprise Ireland instrument, approval, the funding rate applied and the final award amount are decided by Enterprise Ireland alone; a supplier's quote is only ever an input to that decision.

How we decide what to quote for Ei Digital Transition Fund

Digital Bridge delivers this work from Gorey Business Park in County Wexford on a fixed written scope — one price, one delivery date — and the client owns the finished work outright. The Digital Transition Fund supports Irish companies adopting digital technologies — automation, data platforms, digital manufacturing and AI — as part of a defined transformation project. Before a figure is given, four questions are answered in order, and a named person signs the scope off — it is never generated automatically.

  1. Is this the right job at all? We look at what you already have online, whether the domain and Google Business Profile are in your own name, and what Ei Digital Transition Fund customers currently ask you for. If a repair or a single page would solve it, we quote that instead.
  2. What does the work have to achieve first? The scope is written around one outcome — enquiries, bookings, orders or credibility — and anything else is listed as optional so it can be dropped without renegotiating.
  3. What will it cost and when will it be live? Page count, content readiness, integrations and whether photography or copy still has to be produced set the price and the date, both fixed in writing before work starts.
  4. How will people in Ei Digital Transition Fund find it afterwards? Local search setup is included in a build; ongoing SEO is a separate optional retainer you can start or stop with notice.

Checkable facts behind this Ei Digital Transition Fund page

Author and reviewer: Joey Bray, founder of Digital Bridge, building and maintaining Irish business websites since 2016. Studio address: Gorey Business Park, Gorey, Co. Wexford. Phone: 085 224 1848. Every claim below can be checked before you speak to us.

  • Published starting prices, not estimates released after a sales call — see the pricing page for the full ladder.
  • Live client sites you can open and test yourself are listed in the work section.
  • One contact from first call to launch, rather than an account handler relaying messages.
  • A plain-text mirror of this page is published for AI assistants at the same path with a .md extension.