Public funding for an AI project in an SME in 2026: France, Spain, Belgium

In short

• France: the Diagnostic Data IA is open. It costs €10,000 excl. VAT (before tax), of which 40% is paid by the State under the France 2030 plan, for companies with 10 to 2,000 employees.
• Spain and Wallonia: Kit Digital, Kit Consulting, Start IA and Tremplin IA no longer accept applications as of 12 October 2026. In Flanders, the government has approved in principle limiting the advice subsidised by the SME portfolio to cybersecurity.
• To budget for without grants: grants mostly pay for the diagnostic, advice and training. The monthly subscription remains your responsibility.

What grants exist to fund an AI project in an SME? As of 12 October 2026, among the grants tracked here, only one is verifiably open: the Diagnostic Data IA in France. For the Flemish SME portfolio, check the status with the VLAIO agency. The French AI accelerators, reserved for larger companies, do not show application dates.

Every figure comes from an official page, cited in the article or in the table. These grants open and close quickly: we re-check every line before each publication. Anything we could not confirm is flagged as such.

France: Diagnostic Data IA and AI accelerators (France 2030)

The Diagnostic Data IA is run by Bpifrance Conseil on behalf of the State.

• Cost: €10,000 excl. VAT, 40% paid by France 2030. You pay the remaining €6,000 excl. VAT.
• Who it is for: SMEs and mid-caps (intermediate-sized companies) with 10 to 2,000 employees, registered in France on the trade and companies register.
• What you get: 8 days of an expert's time. They carry out a first technical and operational review, then identify concrete use cases and rank them by their value for your company.
• Before applying: have Bpifrance confirm the other conditions and the timescales.

The AI accelerators are an 18-month programme, by application, in cohorts of about twenty business owners. According to the ministry, they include a 12-day diagnostic, two 13-day modules, deployment support, group training and networking. They target larger companies: more than 50 employees, more than 8 million euros in turnover and at least 3 years in existence.

The rate of support differs depending on the official source: 41% according to Bpifrance, which runs the programme, and 46% according to the ministry's page. Have Bpifrance Conseil confirm it before applying. Bpifrance shows neither an opening date nor an application deadline.

Spain: Kit Digital and Kit Consulting, where do they stand in 2026?

Both programmes are managed by Red.es, a public body attached to the Spanish Ministry for Digital Transformation.

Kit Digital. All five calls are closed, the last on 31 October 2025. The one for companies with 50 to 249 employees closed on 30 June 2025. An order published in the Official State Gazette (BOE) on 28 January 2026 changes the programme's rules. It sets no new application period. Its rules apply until the funds are completely used up. If money is left after a call, it goes to applications already submitted that were not funded for lack of budget. The text also allows new calls with the remaining budget to be launched, “cuando proceda” (where appropriate). None is open as of 12 October 2026. In plain terms: on that date, an SME that has not submitted an application cannot submit one.

Kit Consulting. This programme funded consulting, including an AI consulting service. The voucher went up to €12,000 (10 to 49 employees), €18,000 (50 to 99) and €24,000 (100 to 249), with no more than €6,000 per service. Applications were open from 18 June 2024 to 31 March 2025. As of 12 October 2026, no new call appears in Red.es's list of open procedures.

Not to be confused. Red.es has opened a call, running until 10 November 2026, to develop AI ecosystems for startups and SMEs. Only trade associations and technology centres can respond. The money is paid to them. They then make AI platforms and use cases available to SMEs. So an SME does not receive money directly from it.

Belgium: Start IA and Tremplin IA in Wallonia, SME portfolio in Flanders

Start IA (Agence du Numérique, Digital Wallonia) funded 50% of a support package, with no more than €5,000 of public money. It targeted private SMEs based in Wallonia. The grant covered 5 days of audit and action plan, plus 5 optional days, for example to develop an AI agent. The expert had to belong to the “Pool d'experts Start IA” (Start IA expert pool). The 2026 call was open from 10 June to 30 September 2026. It is closed.

Tremplin IA helped assess the feasibility of an AI project before deployment, with a provider chosen by the company. The grant covered up to 50% of the provider's fees, capped at €20,000. The application, of at least 7 pages, was written together with the provider. According to the Digital Wallonia AI page, the call closed on 17 July 2026.

In Flanders, the SME portfolio (kmo-portefeuille, managed by the Flemish agency VLAIO) is changing. On 19 December 2025, the Flemish government approved a reform in principle: subsidised advice will be limited to cybersecurity. Advice for an AI agents project will therefore no longer qualify. For training, the existing themes remain valid. We could not re-read the VLAIO page: check the status, rates and dates with them before applying.

We have not yet checked the grants of the Brussels-Capital Region. They are therefore not included here.

What grants rarely cover: the monthly subscription

The grants presented here mostly pay for the start of a project: a diagnostic, support, a feasibility test or training.

But an AI agent (software that handles tasks for you, with a human at the key points) does not stop on the day it goes live. At Kendu Intelligence, you pay for a custom set-up, then a monthly subscription, both on a quote. With this subscription, we will monitor your agents. When an agent runs into a bug or a recurring error, it will report it to us itself: a ticket will open, and you will follow it in your future client area.

Our advice: cost your project as if the grant did not exist. It then becomes a bonus, not a condition for starting.

Putting the application together without delaying the project

1. Check the status on the day you apply, on the official site. The two Walloon calls closed in July and September 2026.
2. Check who chooses the provider. Depending on the grant, you choose freely, as with Tremplin IA, or from a list of experts, as with Start IA.
3. Follow the order of the steps set by the body that manages the grant, before launching the work.
4. List the public aid received over the last three years. The European “de minimis” rule (Regulation 2023/2831, Article 3) caps the small amounts of aid a company can receive from the same State: €300,000 over three years. Start IA and Tremplin IA are subject to it.
5. Move forward in parallel. List the repetitive tasks, note who approves what, gather a few sample documents. This work serves the diagnostic and the project alike.
6. Keep the diagnostic's conclusions. They help scope the set-up, with us or with another provider.

Status of each grant and date of verification

Last checked: 12 October 2026. Next check: before each new publication of this page.

Going further

• The Kendu Intelligence audit: a short audit, at €490 excl. VAT, deducted from the set-up quote if you sign it within 30 days. If you already have the conclusions of a funded diagnostic, bring them.
• Supervision: what the monthly subscription will cover, and how your agents will report their own problems.
• Training: how your teams will learn to run their agents; getting started is included in the set-up.