We are thrilled to announce a monumental milestone that underscores the transformative power of the ChatMED ecosystem: the official launch of Vezilka, a new “AI Antenna” established as a key node of the Greek Pharos AI Factory. Vezilka is part of the European Union’s ambitious “https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/ai-factories” AI Factories and Antennas initiative, funded by EuroHPC JU. It serves as a bridge, giving North Macedonia’s innovators secure access to powerful AI resources and supercomputers hosted in main European AI Factories, avoiding the need for massive local infrastructure.
The project aims to build a skilled AI workforce, modernize public services, and develop specific AI solutions for critical areas like:
- Health
- Energy
- Culture & Language (including a Macedonian language model)
- Agriculture
- Digital Public Administration
This achievement is more than just an infrastructural upgrade; it is a direct testament to the success of ChatMED’s core mission. The proposal for Vezilka was authored by one of our very own ChatMED members, prof. Dimitar Trajanov, proving that our commitment to boosting the capacities of our staff is yielding tangible, world-class results.
A Breakthrough for Capacity Building
One of ChatMED’s primary objectives has always been to empower researchers and staff in widening countries with the skills to lead European innovation. The realization of Vezilka is the ultimate validation of this goal. It demonstrates that our team members are not merely participants in the AI revolution, even more, they are becoming its architects. By securing and establishing this AI Antenna, our member has placed the region firmly on the European AI map, creating a bridge between local expertise and the massive computational resources of the Pharos AI Factory.
Transforming National Health
While Vezilka will serve as a cross-sectoral hub, its potential to transform National Health is particularly exciting. As an AI Antenna, Vezilka will provide the high-performance computing power and specialized infrastructure necessary to deploy advanced healthcare models at scale.
This creates the ideal environment to exploit the results of the ChatMED project. Vezilka will serve as the deployment engine, taking our research from the lab and integrating it into the national health infrastructure to improve patient outcomes and streamline medical workflows.
A Future of Innovation
Vezilka stands as a lighthouse (“Pharos”) for future innovation. It creates a sustainable ecosystem where ChatMED’s innovations can thrive long after the project concludes. We are incredibly proud of the vision and determination shown by our team in bringing this facility to life.
Stay tuned as we begin to migrate our most advanced medical AI pilots to this powerful new platform!
