KMU.DIGITAL — Austria's Two-Tier SME Digitalisation Grant Programme

KMU.DIGITAL is Austria's national SME digitalisation grant, jointly delivered since 2017 by the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber (WKO), which funds an initial digital-strategy consulting module, and Austria Wirtschaftsservice (aws), the state promotional bank, which funds the subsequent implementation module for approved projects. The programme has been relaunched several times (versions 2.0 through 4.0) as funding rounds close and reopen with revised conditions.
Following its most recent relaunch in May 2024, aws reports around 26,500 applications submitted and roughly 18,200 approved by May 2026, disbursing about EUR 18.1 million — EUR 10.5 million across roughly 16,400 approved consulting grants and EUR 7.6 million across roughly 1,800 approved implementation grants. Since the programme's 2017 launch it has supported over 25,000 consulting and implementation initiatives in total. An independent synthesis evaluation of the programme (fteval, commissioned by the responsible ministry, fieldwork January–July 2023, covering the September 2019–December 2022 relaunch period) assessed its effectiveness and reach and fed recommendations into the current design.
The figures available are participation and disbursement statistics plus the existence of a commissioned effectiveness evaluation, rather than published firm-level outcome data (turnover, employment or digital-maturity change); the full evaluation report was not accessible in machine-readable form for this review, so its detailed findings could not be independently verified here.

Read the full analysis: https://www.aws.at/richtlinien/richtlinie/kmu-digitalisierungsfoerderung-kmudigital/