The Complete Guide to Enterprise Ireland Digital Discovery

Build a Digital Roadmap Before Investing in Technology

Digital Discovery is Enterprise Ireland’s digital strategy development offer. It funds a short, scoped consultancy engagement with a qualified external service provider of your choosing, and it produces a digital roadmap for your business. For most companies, the net cost is around €1,300.

If you know something needs to improve digitally, but you are not ready for a large engagement, this is the lowest-commitment EI support you can act on. A structured review, an evidence-based picture of the gaps, and a plan. No long programme, no big cheque.

This guide covers what Digital Discovery is, who it is for, what it costs, what a project actually involves, and how to apply. Everything factual here comes from Enterprise Ireland’s published material on the offer, and the figures carry a date of verification. Confirm the current terms on the official EI Digital Discovery page or with your Development Adviser before applying.

What Digital Discovery is

In EI’s own framing:

Digital Discovery helps you uncover your company’s digital potential by reviewing existing systems, processes, and capabilities, exploring new opportunities, and planning a competitive future with a digital roadmap.

In practice, it is a short, structured consultancy project. The funding covers a maximum of 7 consultancy days, ideally delivered over an 8- to 12-week period. A provider comes in, works through a defined review with your team, and leaves you with a roadmap and an action plan.

One point of perspective from our side, and it is perspective, not EI’s framing: Digital Discovery covers the whole digital picture, from operations to data to cybersecurity. But for many B2B companies, the biggest gaps that surface sit in the commercial systems: the CRM nobody configured properly, the data that cannot answer basic pipeline questions, the digital capability the team never built. A Digital Discovery project scoped with that lens tends to produce the most commercially useful roadmap.

Who it is for

Digital Discovery is for Enterprise Ireland clients. EI’s published terms describe eligible companies as clients in manufacturing or internationally traded services with ten or more full-time staff at the time of application, with EI high-potential start-up clients also eligible. If you are not an EI client, EI’s published route is the National Enterprise Hub at neh.gov.ie.

In company terms, the fit looks like this. Leadership knows digital or marketing systems need work. There is no clear internal picture of where the gaps actually are. And the business wants an evidence-based starting point before committing to anything larger. If you already know exactly what needs fixing and how, Digital Discovery adds less. Its value is diagnosis.

One more point on eligibility. A company, or group of companies, can avail of Digital Discovery once. EI may approve a follow-on project, but only where 18 months or more have passed from the date of the claim. If you are going to use it, scope it properly the first time.

Funding, Costs and Grant Value

The figures below are from Enterprise Ireland’s published Digital Discovery material, checked on 13 July 2026. Confirm current terms with EI before applying.

• Enterprise Ireland provides grant funding for 80% of the project cost, up to a maximum project value of €6,300. That is a €5,000 grant. The figure is based on 7 days of external consultancy, with eligible costs capped at €900 per day, including travel, subsistence, and all out-of-pocket expenses. EI notes that a provider’s actual daily rate may be higher or lower than the cap.
• Translated once, plainly: for most companies, the net cost is around €1,300 for a scoped digital strategy project. That is the entire point of the offer. It removes the cost as a reason not to get a proper external look at the business.

What a Digital Discovery project covers

EI structures the engagement in three parts.

• Discover your digital potential. The provider analyses existing systems, process-flow efficiency, skills and digital mindset within the company, the use of data to drive the business, the culture of improvement and innovation, and cybersecurity strategy and processes.
• Explore digital opportunities. Opportunities to improve process flow, potential for new digital services or products, and the use of digital data systems to inform decision-making.
• Plan your digital roadmap. The roadmap and a digital action plan are co-developed with company leadership and the service provider. Not delivered to you. Built with you.

Worth knowing before you scope anything: EI is explicit that Digital Discovery is not a general consultancy grant. It does not fund routine upgrades of systems already in use, paid software trials, assessments from technology vendors (the provider must be solution agnostic), or general management consultancy, including sales and marketing consultancy and market research.

If a marketing-minded company uses this support well, the project focuses on the systems, data, and capabilities underlying the marketing function, not on campaigns or marketing strategy. That distinction matters at the application stage.

What you get at the end

EI defines the outputs as follows: a strategic digital roadmap covering at least the next 12 to 18 months, a defined 4 to 6-month action plan setting out the steps your company will take, a detailed analysis of your current digital maturity and where the gaps lie, and a plan to embed a stronger culture of innovation and digital mindset.

Our perspective, labelled as such: a roadmap is only as good as the questions asked during the 7 days. Seven days is enough time for a sharp provider to find what matters, and enough time for a generic one to produce a document that reads well and changes nothing. Provider choice determines whether the roadmap is commercially useful or shelfware. Which brings us to the process.

How to apply, step by step

EI’s published process, condensed:

1. Consider your digital readiness. Your leadership team, in consultation with staff, considers current digital readiness and future digital goals. Where are the gaps?
2. Identify a suitable service provider. You choose the provider. EI expects the provider to have expertise relevant to both Digital Discovery and your industry. There is no approved panel to pick from.
3. Scope the project together. With your provider, define the current challenges, the actions to address them, and the expected outcomes. EI’s own application guidance says to convey your current digital maturity, the gaps, the work you plan with your chosen provider, and the expected outcomes of the engagement.
4. Submit the online application. Applications are submitted through EI’s online application system and processed by the Operational Excellence and Digital team. EI’s published processing time is 1 to 2 weeks, and if the team requests further information, they ask that you respond within 5 working days.
5. Sign the Letter of Offer, then start. Successful applicants receive a Letter of Offer by email for digital signature. Work begins only after signing. The same rule that applies across EI supports applies here: costs incurred before EI receives a valid application are not eligible, so nothing gets contracted or delivered early.

Two practical additions. First, talk to your Development Adviser as part of this. EI’s terms state that applications should always be discussed with your assigned Adviser before submission, and the Adviser knows your file. Second, EI recommends identifying internal champions who will own the roadmap after the project ends. Do that before the project starts, not after. A roadmap without an owner is a PDF.

Where Digital Discovery leads

Two honest paths out of a Digital Discovery project.

1. Path one: the roadmap is executed internally. The 4 to 6 month action plan is designed for exactly this, and for some companies, the gaps surfaced are ones the existing team can close.
2. Path two: the roadmap surfaces capability gaps that the team cannot close on its own. Skills that need to be built, not just tasks to be done. Enterprise Ireland has support for that conversation, and it starts with your Development Adviser. If the gap is marketing capability for export markets, our guide to the Build Capability grant covers the main support for structured training.

One fact almost nobody covers: the Digital Discovery grant also supports Stage 1 of Enterprise Ireland’s AI for Business initiative, called AI Discovery. Companies exploring AI adoption use the same €6,300 project value, with 80% covered by the Digital Discovery grant, and the application uses the same online form with the Digital Discovery project type. If your digital question is really an AI question, the same support applies.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to be an Enterprise Ireland client?

Yes. Digital Discovery is for Enterprise Ireland clients. If you are not a client, EI directs companies to the National Enterprise Hub at neh.gov.ie to find supports available to you.

How much does Digital Discovery cost after the grant?

EI funds 80% of the project cost up to a maximum project value of €6,300, a €5,000 grant. For most companies, that means a net cost of around €1,300. Provider daily rates may be higher or lower than EI’s €900 per-day eligible cost cap, which would affect the net figure.

How long does approval take?

EI’s published processing time is 1 to 2 weeks from the submission date. If the team requests further information, respond within 5 working days to keep the application moving. The Letter of Offer arrives by email for digital signature.

Who chooses the service provider?

You do. There is no approved panel. EI expects the provider to have expertise relevant to Digital Discovery and your industry, and to be solution-agnostic rather than tied to a technology vendor.

Can Digital Discovery be used to look at AI?

Yes. The Digital Discovery grant supports Stage 1 of EI’s AI for Business initiative, AI Discovery. The funding terms are the same, and the application goes through the same online form using the Digital Discovery project type.

Can we use Digital Discovery more than once?

Once, as standard. EI’s published terms allow a follow-on project only where 18 months or more have passed from the date of the claim. Treat the first project as the one that counts.

What happens after the roadmap is delivered?

You execute the 4 to 6 month action plan internally, or the roadmap surfaces capability gaps that need a larger, structured engagement. That conversation starts with your Development Adviser, who will point you at the right support for what the roadmap found.

Thinking about Digital Discovery?

If you are weighing up whether Digital Discovery fits, or what a commercially scoped project would look like for a B2B company, book a discovery call. We will tell you straight, including whether a different starting point suits you better.