Below, you can find all the resources from our recent Infoday webinar session, including the presentation slides, a recording of the live session, and answers to frequently asked questions.
Still have questions? Reach out to the Open Call Helpdesk: llm-bridge@28digital.eu.
Last update: 29 April 2026
30 startups will be selected for the first cohort of the Venture Incubation Programme (VIP). There will be 3 VIP cohorts throughout the LLM-BRIDGE project in total.
Five of the top-performing startups will be eligible to receive 25 000 euros in financial support.
Please note that in order to be eligible for the final prize of 25 000 euros, the entity must be incorporated or legally established in a country eligible under the Digital Europe Programme (DEP).
More information can be found in Section 7 (Financial Support to Startups) in the Open Call document.
There is no strict age or incorporation-date requirement, but the programme is tailored for early-stage ventures (including pre-incorporation teams). As stated in Section 4.1 (Eligibility Criteria) in the Open Call document, applicants must be “operating at an early stage of development with demonstrated innovation criteria.” Applicants are expected to be at an early stage of development, as the programme is designed to support early-stage ventures with demonstrated innovation potential.
Single-founder companies are eligible to apply.
That said, applicants should be able to demonstrate that they have the capacity to scale beyond an individual founder. Single-founder applicants may therefore wish to pay particular attention to how they present their operational capacity, advisory support, hiring plans, partnerships, or other mechanisms that will help them manage growth and execution risks.
A prototype is not formally defined as a strict eligibility threshold, but proposals are expected to demonstrate at least a functional prototype or comparable technical maturity. Pure concept-stage ideas without implementation are unlikely to be competitive, as evaluation places explicit emphasis on the maturity and feasibility of the solution. In short, applicants should already have something demonstrable (prototype-level) that can be validated, improved, and pushed toward product-market fit during the 12-week incubation.
As stated in Section 4.1 (Geographic Eligibility criteria), applicants must be legally established in a country eligible under the Digital Europe Programme (DEP). For applicants without a legally established or unincorporated company yet, eligibility will consider the nationality and residence of the founders.
Eligibility in this case will be assessed based on the residency of the team. According to the Geographic Eligibility criteria in Section 4.1, applicants must be legally established in a country eligible under the Digital Europe Programme (DEP). For applicants without an established company, eligibility will be determined based on the country of residence of the founders.
Please note that in order to be eligible for the final prize of 25 000 euros, the entity must be incorporated or legally established in a country eligible under DEP.
There are no eligibility restrictions regarding a hybrid AI approach. As stated in Section 4.1 (Eligibility Criteria) of the Open Call document, the target applicant profile covers solutions “based on Generative AI, Large Language Model processing, or related AI technologies,” making a hybrid approach entirely feasible.
As mentioned in the previous question and as stated in Section 4.1 (Eligibility Criteria) of the Open Call document, as long as the solution is based on or is related to LLMs, GenAI, NLP, or related AI technologies, the startup is eligible to apply.
The instructions provided in the call documentation are for reference. Applicants are free to use the length they consider most appropriate for each field. There are examples in the formular to guide applicants on what a good quality answer could look like. This should be taken as guideline but is not mandatory.
Review the resources above and apply by 1 June 2026, 17:00 CEST.
English (UK)