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Good practice Imported

Vezilka National AI Centre — Skopje, North Macedonia

North Macedonia · Skopje · See the North Macedonia profile · See the Skopje profile

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 70% 40/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

North Macedonia's first National AI Centre, 'Vezilka', launched in 2026 with a ~€6.2m budget (EU Horizon Europe/EuroHPC plus state co-financing) to give students, researchers and public bodies AI training and compute access, starting with a Macedonian-language model.

~6.2 million EUR
Total project budget (2026–2029)
3.1 million EUR
EU Horizon Europe/EuroHPC grant portion
36 months
Project duration
Vezilka National AI Centre — Skopje, North Macedonia

Details

Maturity
Pilot
Promoter
Faculty of Computer Science and Engineering (FINKI), Ss. Cyril and Methodius University, with the Ministry of Digital Transformation
Period
2026–2029 (36-month project)
Keywords
government, higher education, R&D, AI research

Context

In 2026, the Faculty of Computer Science and Engineering (FINKI) at Ss. Cyril and Methodius University, together with North Macedonia's Ministry of Digital Transformation, launched Vezilka, the country's first National AI Centre, based in Skopje. The 36-month project (2026–2029) is funded at roughly €6.2 million, combining a €3.1 million EU Horizon Europe/EuroHPC grant with national co-financing. It targets five priority sectors: healthcare, energy, public administration, language and culture, and agriculture.

Objectives

The Centre's flagship initial goal is building a Macedonian-language AI model, alongside providing practical AI training and shared compute resources to students, researchers, SMEs and public bodies. The initiative is explicitly framed around 'responsible and trustworthy AI'.

Activities

As a just-launched initiative, the Centre is standing up training programmes and shared compute infrastructure while beginning work on the flagship Macedonian-language model. No student, researcher or SME reach numbers have been published yet.

Conclusions

Independent regional analysis by the China-CEE Institute has raised a 'digital extractivism' concern common to smaller national AI centres — whether value and control over AI infrastructure stay local or migrate to larger foreign vendors and institutions. This governance question is noted here but cannot yet be resolved without outcome data.

Implementation
Indicative cost
High (€500k–€5M) — ~€6.2 million total over 36 months, combining a €3.1 million EU Horizon Europe/EuroHPC grant with national co-financing.
Time to results
Medium (1–3 years) — 36-month project, 2026–2029.
Staffing & skills
Faculty of Computer Science and Engineering (FINKI), Ss. Cyril and Methodius University, North Macedonia's Ministry of Digital Transformation

Conditions for success

  • EU Horizon Europe/EuroHPC co-funding combined with national co-financing
  • Targeted focus on five priority sectors (healthcare, energy, public administration, language and culture, agriculture)

Common failure modes

  • Independent regional analysis (China-CEE Institute) raises a 'digital extractivism' concern — the risk that value and control over AI infrastructure migrate to larger foreign vendors/institutions rather than remaining local

Where it fits

Governance type
national government and public university partnership
Scale
national
Income level
upper-middle-income (North Macedonia)

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes Horizon Europe

Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.

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Data sources

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