VEZILKA Deepens AI Factory Cooperation With Greece

By Suad Seferi · 7 October 2026 at 10:54

North Macedonia’s VEZILKA AI Factory is expanding cooperation with Greece’s PHAROS AI Factory, with the two initiatives discussing how expertise, computing resources and services could be shared more effectively across the European AI Factory network. The talks took place during a visit to Athens by Gjorgji Madjarov of the Faculty of Computer Science and Engineering at Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje. Madjarov met Stefanos Kollias, chairman of GRNET and coordinator of PHAROS, as well as GRNET project manager Ilias Hatzakis. According to VEZILKA, the discussions covered cooperation in areas of common interest, exchange of technical knowledge and approaches to federated access to computing resources. For North Macedonia, that last point is particularly important. VEZILKA operates as the country’s AI Factory Antenna, connecting local researchers, companies and institutions with infrastructure available through Europe’s wider network of AI Factories. Unlike a full AI Factory with its own large-scale supercomputing infrastructure, the antenna model is designed to provide national access to expertise, services and computing capacity available elsewhere in the network. PHAROS is one of those connections. The Greek AI Factory is linked to the DAEDALUS supercomputer and focuses on AI applications in areas including health, language and culture, and sustainability. VEZILKA already identifies PHAROS as a strategic partner and says the cooperation gives organisations in North Macedonia a pathway towards European AI computing infrastructure. From access to practical use The latest meeting focused not only on infrastructure, but also on how organisations can move from an initial AI idea towards testing and implementation. That includes questions around how computing resources are requested, how technical support is delivered and how AI Factory services can be made easier to use for researchers, businesses and public institutions. These issues are becoming increasingly relevant as the European Union expands its AI Factory network around high-performance computing infrastructure. For smaller countries, building independent large-scale AI computing capacity is expensive. Participation in a shared European network offers another model: local organisations can receive support through national structures while accessing specialised infrastructure elsewhere. VEZILKA says experience from PHAROS could help shape its own services and support mechanisms as the North Macedonian initiative develops. The project officially started in April 2026 and runs for 36 months. Its total budget is approximately €6.2 million, including around €3.1 million in EU funding through the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking, with additional support from North Macedonia’s Ministry of Digital Transformation and FCSE at UKIM. VEZILKA focuses on five main areas: language and culture, public administration, health, energy and agriculture. A regional AI infrastructure link The cooperation also illustrates how AI infrastructure in Southeast Europe is beginning to develop across national borders rather than as isolated projects. North Macedonia does not need to reproduce every component of a large AI Factory locally if researchers and companies can gain reliable access to computing resources and expertise through partners such as PHAROS. The practical test will be whether that model becomes easy enough for local organisations to use. Access to a European supercomputer matters only if companies, researchers and public institutions can move from application procedures to actual experiments, models and services. VEZILKA and PHAROS are now discussing how that path can work more effectively, including through federated resource provisioning and closer exchange of expertise. As VEZILKA moves further into its implementation phase, the next measure of progress will be how many organisations in North Macedonia move beyond training and awareness and begin using the infrastructure and technical services available through the European AI Factory ecosystem.