Building Innovation Bridges in Central and Eastern Europe

The European Innovation Scoreboard 2026 paints a mixed picture for Central and Eastern Europe countries. Since 2019, the group has made its strongest gains in Digitalisation and Investments in information technologies — Romania and Bulgaria for instance both improved over 47 points in Digitalisation since 2019, and cloud computing adoption roughly doubled across most of the group. But performance in the Innovators dimension has fallen across the group over the same period, and also when compared to last year’s edition of the report.

This is precisely the divergence that makes 28DIGITAL's programme portfolio most relevant for the region. The physical infrastructure for a digital economy  exists or is being built; what is missing is the entrepreneurial, financial, and connective layer that converts it into growth.

28DIGITAL's strategy across CEE countries addresses these gaps through a layered approach, supporting everyone from students to established companies. The aim is to build the connective tissue of a functioning innovation economy.

The foundation of any innovation ecosystem is talent. For CEE, a critical element is retaining local talent and equipping it with the entrepreneurial skills needed to build new ventures, rather than just providing services for others. 28DIGITAL addresses this through its pan-European education programmes.

A significant development came in 2022 when Babeș-Bolyai University (UBB) in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, joined the EIT Digital Master School, adding its cybersecurity expertise to the curriculum. The collaboration goes beyond technical training. Students in the two-year programme spend their first year at one university and their second at another, earning a double degree with the EIT Label. Crucially, the curriculum includes a minor in entrepreneurship and innovation.

This focus on marrying technical depth with business acumen is deliberate. As UBB Professor Simona Motogna explained, the Cluj digital ecosystem realized over the past decades that "just doing outsourcing in Cluj is not sustainable in the long run. We need as a local community to invest in our own products, our own companies involved in entrepreneurship." For UBB, the partnership also brings "higher international visibility" and helps attract international students and research collaborations.

This educational thread runs throughout the region. In Hungary, doctoral student Csaba Györgyi exemplifies the outcomes of this approach. Completing his PhD through the EIT Digital Doctoral School with Ericsson, he co-invented five patents, produced top-tier research, and launched the open-source project P4RROT—a trajectory that moves from academic research to commercial application.

For early-stage teams, the 28DIGITAL Venture Incubation Program provides a structured path from prototype to investment-ready venture. The program is a two-stage, 12-week initiative offering mentoring, customer validation, and a Demo Day. Selected teams receive up to €25,000 in prize funding, with 28DIGITAL taking a minor equity stake. The programme explicitly encourages applications from Regional Innovation Scheme (RIS) countries, a category that includes most CEE nations, to reduce the east-west innovation divide.

The Venture Incubation Program's impact in the region is tangible. Polish startup Restimo credits the programme with its survival: “Thanks to 28DIGITAL, we built our initial MVP and validated business hypotheses... we survived the pandemic, pivoted our product and raised the next investment round.”

Another Polish startup, finQbit, offers a compelling illustration of the Venture Incubation Program's potential. Founded in 2023, the company is building quantum-ready financial risk infrastructure that helps banks improve complex modelling without needing in-house quantum expertise. FinQbit participated in the program in 2024, receiving venture-building support, ecosystem access, and financial backing. The company has since raised over USD 1 million in total funding, is already working with European banks, and was ranked 1st in Poland's Deep Tech Booster programme. It also secured a €500,000 EIC grant to advance quantum-accelerated risk modelling and was invited to Expand North Star in Dubai as part of 28DIGITAL's international delegation; a trajectory from early-stage CEE startup to globally-networked scaleup that illustrates exactly what the Venture Incubation Program is designed to enable.

Omnio, a Bulgarian RegTech startup, represents a particularly compelling case of the VIP's transformative potential. Founded in 2021 by Stoyan Lozanov, who witnessed firsthand the inefficiencies in financial crime compliance during his tenure in financial institutions, Omnio developed an AI-driven platform that automates customer screening, anti-money-laundering checks, and fraud detection.

As ventures grow, the challenge shifts from validation to scaling and market entry. 28DIGITAL addresses this through the Co-Creation Accelerator (the evolution of its Open Innovation Factory) which matches early-stage deep-tech startups with established corporate partners to co-develop solutions around concrete challenges over four months. Selected startups receive up to €250,000 (with no co-investment required) plus mentorship and access to a network of over 270 European partners . For CEE startups, this provides a direct pipeline to corporate clients and real-world validation that is often difficult to obtain locally.

Checkpoint Care, a Bulgarian healthtech startup, illustrates the potential waiting to be unlocked. 28DIGITAL has supported the company's fundraising efforts, helping it connect with investors and refine its proposition. It is exactly the kind of support that can turn a promising local venture into a regional player—and there are many more Bulgarian stars waiting to shine.

The most institutionally embedded presence in the region is in Hungary, anchored by the DigitalTech European Digital Innovation Hub (EDIH), which 28DIGITAL leads. DigitalTech EDIH is the reference hub in Hungary for supporting startups, SMEs, and public bodies in their digital transformation, with a strong focus on cybersecurity, blockchain, fintech, and edtech. Funded with €5.4 million from the Digital Europe Programme, it provides skills training, test-before-invest services, and investment support. The consortium includes major university partners like Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) and the Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME), alongside regional innovation agencies. The hub is also part of the European Corridor of Cybersecurity EDIHs (ECCE), embedding Hungary in a pan-European network.

Corporate partnerships are a central pillar of this ecosystem. Bosch Hungary has been a key partner for years, hosting the 2024 EIT Digital Master School graduation ceremony and participating in 28DIGITAL's Corporate Innovation Club. The initiative is designed to generate precisely the kind of inter-firm collaboration that innovation scoreboards identify as a persistent weakness.

Romania presents a significant opportunity for deepening corporate engagement.

28DIGITAL is aiming at expanding its ecosystem in the country, particularly in the Cluj region, where the partnership with UBB has already established a strong educational anchor. The goal is to intensify uptake for startups and help with digitization across Romanian industries. Companies interested in accessing a pipeline of digital talent, co-creating solutions with innovative startups, and accelerating their own digital transformation are invited to connect.

Until then, engagement comes through major EU programmes. The UNITE Project, led by 28DIGITAL, is a €20 million pan-European digital health initiative that brings together seven regions, including Romania. UNITE runs open calls through which interregional consortia can receive nearly €1 million each to validate digital health solutions. For Romanian innovators, UNITE offers a structured pathway to market validation and pan-European visibility that the domestic ecosystem currently struggles to provide. Slovakia, meanwhile, participates in the RIVCircular Horizon Europe project, where 28DIGITAL manages the digital solutions for the circular economy strand for eight EU regions, including Košice.

For Bulgaria, the next step is establishing a physical presence. 28DIGITAL is actively looking to launch an office there and is seeking partners to help make this happen. The ambition is clear: to provide Bulgarian entrepreneurs with the same structured pathways to funding, mentorship, and pan-European visibility that exist in other CEE hubs. Checkpoint Care's and Omnio’s experience shows what is possible with targeted support. The goal is to enable many more Bulgarian stars to shine on the European stage.