💶DIGITAL.PLUS 26 and current funding checks: a plain guide for Upper-Austrian businesses

Note: Every rate, cap, budget note and date below is taken from an official source and dated. Funding programmes change and budgets run out — always check the official page and your own eligibility before relying on a number. We are not the funding body: whether a project qualifies is decided by WKO OÖ, Land OÖ or FFG, not by us.

If a grant could cover part of the bill for fixing the admin task that quietly eats your week, you would want to know which one — and whether your project even qualifies. This is a plain, dated guide to DIGITAL.PLUS 26 and other current funding checks, and where a free audit fits in.

🧭 The short version

Audit first, grant second. We start by naming the one workflow that is costing you the most time, and whether automation is even the right fix. If it is, several Austrian programmes may co-fund the work — you carry only part of the cost. We don't sell you a grant; we help you scope a project worth funding.

• DIGITAL.PLUS 26 — the Upper-Austrian implementation grant (WKO OÖ + Land OÖ) for process automation, AI/data work and cyber-security.
• ERFOLG.PLUS 26 — a smaller WKO OÖ consulting grant for topics such as AI, automation, business processes and cyber-security.
• Training funds — FFG Skills Schecks 2026 or Land OÖ Innovative Skills can fit qualification work, not custom implementation.
• FFG R&D programmes — for genuinely new research and development, not normal rollout of existing tools.

💶 DIGITAL.PLUS 26 — the Upper-Austrian implementation grant

DIGITAL.PLUS 26 is a joint programme of the Wirtschaftskammer Oberösterreich and the Land Oberösterreich. It supports digitalisation projects in three areas: automation and digitalisation of processes, data management and artificial intelligence, and secure IT systems and cyber-security.

Who can apply: SMEs (including one-person businesses) with their company seat in Upper Austria and an active WKO OÖ membership, in orderly economic circumstances. One project per member. You apply for yourself — companies that themselves sell digitalisation or IT services in the area they apply for are excluded, and so are businesses that already received Digital Starter 2023, Digital Starter 2024 or DIGITAL.PLUS 2025.

What it won't fund: digital-marketing projects, standard hardware and software, and your own internal staff time. The programme page also shows a budget meter (Ausschöpfungsgrad) that updates weekly — worth a look before you invest time in an application.

🇦🇹 Other current checks: consulting, training, R&D

ERFOLG.PLUS 26 is worth checking for a smaller consulting step. WKO OÖ lists consulting on artificial intelligence, automation, business processes, innovation and information/cyber-security as eligible themes. The published grant is 50% of the consulting fee, capped at €750, with applications possible until 15 December 2026 unless the budget runs out. The official page showed a 55% budget exhaustion level on 6 July 2026.

Training is a different category. FFG Skills Schecks 2026 can subsidise external professional training with a digital or ecological-transformation focus: up to 50% of external training costs, capped at €5,000 per person, for companies with an Austrian branch. Land OÖ's Innovative Skills for KMUs is another training-cost route for eligible Upper-Austrian WKO members.

FFG R&D programmes are for projects with genuine innovation content — building something new, not rolling out an existing tool. Most small-business automation is the latter, which points back to DIGITAL.PLUS 26 or a consulting/training check rather than a research grant.

🗺️ Upper Austria specifically

For an Upper-Austrian business, DIGITAL.PLUS 26 is the regional headline for implementation work — it is the Land OÖ and WKO OÖ co-funding the same kind of project we would scope in an audit. The WKO OÖ also keeps a running list of current funding programmes, which is the right place to check what else is open in the region at any given moment.

🎟️ An illustrative example: an event workflow

Note: The scenario below is an illustrative composite — not a specific client, and deliberately without figures. It shows the shape of the work, not a promise of a result.

Picture a small organiser of regional events. Registrations arrive by email and get copied into a spreadsheet by hand. Confirmations go out late. The attendee list lives in three places that never quite agree. None of this is failure — it is what running events does to the back office.

An audit names the one bottleneck — here, registration and attendee communication — and asks the only question that matters: stop it, simplify it, automate it, or leave it alone. If the answer is “automate”, a single registration-to-confirmation workflow replaces the copy-paste, and the attendee list has one home. That kind of project sits squarely in DIGITAL.PLUS 26's “automation and digitalisation” theme — if it meets the rules above.

🔍 Where the free audit fits

The audit is free and comes first. In about 30 minutes we name the one workflow worth fixing and tell you whether automation is even the right answer — if it isn't, we say so. Only then does funding enter the picture: if you choose to go ahead, a programme like DIGITAL.PLUS 26 may cover part of the cost of the work you picked.

Throughout, you hold the kill-switch. Your data stays yours — local by default, EU cloud only if you opt in, in writing. AssistanceManager's paid services launch in 2026; the audit and the launch list are free.

🧾 What we don't promise

We can't promise you a grant, or a particular amount — eligibility and remaining budget are the funding body's call, not ours. What we can do is help you scope a project that has a fair chance of qualifying, and act as the kind of external IT and digitalisation provider whose costs the programme can count as eligible. DIGITAL.PLUS 26's own rules also require that provider to be independent of you — no shared ownership or family ties — which we are, because you are the client and we are not. Confirm the current rules and your own eligibility on the official page before you count on any of it.

❓ Common questions

Do I get the money, or do you? You do. The grant goes to your business; we are the provider whose work can form part of the funded project.

Can you guarantee I'll be funded? No. We help you apply for the right programme with a well-scoped project; the decision is the funding body's.

Does the audit cost anything? No. The audit is free, and so is joining the launch list. Paid services launch in 2026.