The initiative includes 10 leading European institutions, among them CERN, the Technical University of Munich, TU Delft, JAMK Finnish Innovation Center, and others. The project directly complements the development of a high-performance supercomputing center on Maribor Island, valued at 150 million euros, which by 2027 will become a key infrastructure for running advanced AI models and processing large volumes of data.

SI-AAI-RHI is based on four pillars:

• Governance and ethics of artificial intelligence

• Education and digital skills

• Innovation hub for public-private sector collaboration

• Development of breakthrough technologies and co-creation of the future

The project has received broad support from European and industrial partners, including strategic support from NVIDIA for the Eastern European region and also support from the Slovenian government.

»We believe that this initiative can position Slovenia as an important European reference point for the development of human-centered and public-good-oriented artificial intelligence. We are proud that the idea originates from our digital technology study programs, especially the international doctoral program in Applied Artificial Intelligence, which we are developing with European partners,« said Assoc. Prof. Dr. Matej Mertik, Head of the Department of Web and Digital Technologies at Alma Mater Europaea University and architect of the initiative.

The results of the first phase of the call will be announced at the end of July 2025. In the second phase, the consortium will continue developing the innovation campus, creating programs for future generations of researchers, and actively involving industry and the local community.