VEZILKA’s mission is to accelerate the adoption of trustworthy, ethical and
responsible artificial intelligence through concrete, applicable solutions with
high social and economic impact — and to position North Macedonia as a regional
centre for applied AI, firmly connected to the European research network.
Strategic objectives
1. Strengthen the national AI ecosystem
Support AI solutions across the five strategic sectors — health, energy,
culture & language, agriculture and the digital transformation of the
public sector.
2. Provide AI services
Deliver expert, advisory AI services tailored to start-ups, small and
medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and public-sector institutions.
3. Develop and retain AI talent
Build a sustainable pipeline of AI experts through education, hands-on
training and involvement in real projects of national importance.
4. Support national AI policy
Help government create AI strategies, policies and legislation aligned with
the EU AI Act and GDPR, contributing to trustworthy AI in the public sector.
What success looks like
The successful implementation of VEZILKA will deliver measurable outcomes for
the national AI ecosystem:
- A nationally integrated AI innovation ecosystem with active
participation from academia, industry and public administration. - Regular use of AI services by national start-ups, SMEs and
public-sector entities across the key sectors. - A sustainable AI talent pipeline built through training at
all levels — from foundational AI literacy to advanced researcher upskilling. - Functional integration into the EuroHPC and Pharos ecosystems,
with participation in joint activities, tools and datasets, and collaboration
with peer Antennas in Serbia and Cyprus. - A concrete contribution to national AI policy and the
legislative processes related to artificial intelligence.
The five strategic sectors
VEZILKA creates curated, sector-specific “development playgrounds” — each with
access to specialised datasets, pre-built models, custom workflows and advanced
tools — to accelerate progress in:
Health
Developing AI models to support medical diagnostics, optimise hospital processes
and predict operational challenges, improving the quality of care and enabling
personalised, preventive medicine.
Energy
Building models that increase the stability of the electricity grid as renewable
sources grow — with high-precision forecasting of solar and wind generation and
intelligent demand prediction for more efficient management of energy resources.
Culture & Language
Systematically creating and refining Macedonian-language corpora to develop a
foundational Large Language Model (LLM) for the Macedonian context — capturing
our tradition, culture, history and legislation, and addressing the
“low-resource” challenge for the Macedonian language.
Public Administration
Using AI to automate and improve public services — issuing certificates,
processing requests and informing citizens through intelligent assistants — and
increasing transparency and efficiency in the management of public resources,
including public finance and procurement.
Agriculture
Advancing smart farming by integrating climate, soil and yield data to provide
timely recommendations for planting, irrigation and pest protection — increasing
productivity and sustainability, with particular attention to the small parcels
that characterise Macedonian agriculture.
Our long-term vision
Our most desired scenario is for VEZILKA to grow from an EU-funded project into a
self-sustaining national centre for artificial intelligence that
naturally unites academia, industry, start-ups and institutions — recognised as
part of the European network of AI Factories, with its own research, models and
resources contributing at regional and European level. Above all, our greatest
success would be to keep and inspire the young generation of talented engineers,
researchers and innovators to build their future in Macedonia.