The Institute for Artificial Intelligence of Serbia

What The Institute for Artificial Intelligence of Serbia does

The Institute for Artificial Intelligence of Serbia (IVI / Istraživačko-razvojni institut za veštačku inteligenciju Srbije) is a government-established national R&D institute founded on March 18, 2021 by the Government of the Republic of Serbia, operating from a distributed structure with headquarters in Novi Sad and additional offices in Belgrade, Niš, and Kragujevac. It is governed by a Supervisory Board chaired by Prof. Dr Danijela Gračanin and led by acting Director Prof. Dr Dubravko Ćulibrk, who was appointed in 2025 to the Government Council for AI. The institute organizes its work into five research groups (Human-Computer Interaction, AI in Healthcare & Lifesciences, Computer Vision & Remote Sensing, Green AI, and Intelligent Production Systems) and operates within the Science and Technology Park ecosystem.

The institute's product portfolio comprises roughly 20 applied AI solutions spanning Serbian-language NLP (IVIAN anonymizer, IVI Translator with 2.7B parameters for 52 languages, Verif.ai biomedical fact-checking with Bayer), environmental AI (ARTIFACT flood forecasting with TU Delft/TU Hamburg, presented at NeurIPS 2025; DrinaAI hydrological prediction; REWARDING water quality; C.O.R.E. soil carbon monitoring), industrial AI (AI-WELD collaborative welding with CEKOM Croatia, predictive maintenance for EPS thermal plants, manufacturing anomaly detection), and life sciences (mammography diagnostics with the Institute of Oncology, rare disease early diagnosis with Takeda, generative therapeutic peptide and small-molecule design using AlphaFold 2 with US and Japan startups). The technology stack spans transformer networks, graph neural networks, convolutional neural networks, large language models, and federated learning approaches.

IVI's revenue model rests on three streams: national government R&D allocations, EU research grants (Horizon Europe, Interreg, COST Actions, Marie Skłodowska-Curie, and S4AI_HUB European Digital Innovation Hub funding), and bilateral industry collaboration/consulting engagements. It pursues customers through event-driven GTM (NeurIPS, CVPR, EEML Summer School, SpliTech, GPAI Summit), community-led GTM (educational programs including AI Master Class), and direct sales to named industry counterparts. The institute is explicitly pursuing financial self-sustainability four years post-founding and is positioning itself as an incubator for AI startups and a commercialization engine for Serbian-language AI tools.

Name

The Institute for Artificial Intelligence of Serbia

Legal name

Istraživačko-razvojni institut za veštačku inteligenciju Srbije

Website

https://ivi.ac.rs

Company type

Private

Founded year

2021

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

The Institute for Artificial Intelligence of Serbia (IVI) is a government-established national AI R&D institute founded in 2021, operating from Novi Sad with offices in Belgrade, Niš, and Kragujevac. It develops applied AI solutions in healthcare, environmental, industrial, and Serbian-language domains for government, industry, and SME clients across Serbia and Europe.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

AI Research and Development Services

NAICS

Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (except Nanotechnology and Biotechnology) (541715), Scientific Research and Development Services (5417), Computer Systems Design and Related Services (5415)

SIC

Services-Commercial Physical & Biological Research (8731), Services-Computer Programming Services (7371)

akta.pro industry

PRIMARYBPAEAHAF

AI/ML Engineering & Model Development Services

Business & Public Services/IT & Digital Services (Managed Services, Systems Integration)/Data, Analytics & AI Services

SECONDARYHDAAAKAD

LLM/GenAI Guardrails & Safety Controls (policy, filtering, routing)

Hardware, Technology & Telecom/Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning/AI Security, Privacy & Model Governance

SECONDARYHDAAAEAH

Medical Imaging AI

Hardware, Technology & Telecom/Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning/Computer Vision & Video Analytics

SECONDARYHDAAACAO

Enterprise Foundation Model Integration & APIs (Connectors, Governance, Deployment)

Hardware, Technology & Telecom/Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning/Foundation Models & Generative AI (LLMs, multimodal)

SECONDARYEDAAAPAD

Data, AI & Analytics

Education/Adult & Continuing Education/Industry-Specific Training (Healthcare, Tech, etc.)

Keywords

• Applied artificial intelligence research
• Machine learning solutions
• AI research and development
• Natural language processing tools
• AI consulting services

Headquarters

HQ city

Novi Sad

Offices4 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Government Research Grants and EU Project Funding: As a government-established R&D institute, IVI is primarily funded through national government allocations and European Commission research grants (Horizon Europe, Interreg, COST, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, European Digital Innovation Hub funding). Funding covers personnel, equipment, and project operations. The institute is explicitly pursuing self-sustainability (four years after founding).
2. Industry Collaboration and Consultancy: IVI generates revenue through bilateral R&D projects, technology transfer, and consulting engagements with private companies (Telekom, Elixir Group, Galenika, JP Pošta Srbije, EPS) and public institutions. These are project-based engagements aimed at applying AI solutions to industry problems.

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

IVI conducts applied artificial intelligence research and development, delivering project-based AI solutions in healthcare (medical imaging diagnostics, rare disease NLP, drug design), environmental science (flood prediction, water quality, soil carbon), industry (predictive maintenance, collaborative welding, anomaly detection), and Serbian-language NLP (anonymization, translation, fact-checking). The institute also provides free digital transformation services to SMEs through the S4AI_HUB European Digital Innovation Hub and runs education programs such as the EEML Summer School and AI Master Class.

Product overview

The Institute for Artificial Intelligence of Serbia (IVI) is a distributed research and development institute established by the Government of Serbia in 2021. The portfolio consists of multiple specialized AI products and solutions organized by research domains: (1) Healthcare & Life Sciences - mammography AI platform, therapeutic peptide/small molecule design platforms, rare disease early diagnosis, melanoma recurrence prediction; (2) Natural Language Processing - IVIAN Serbian anonymizer, Verif.ai fact-checking system, IVI Translator (2.7B parameter NLU model), Telekom customer service AI; (3) Environmental AI - ARTIFACT flood prediction, DrinaAI water inflow prediction, REWARDING water quality monitoring, C.O.R.E. soil carbon monitoring; (4) Industrial AI - AI-WELD welding automation, manufacturing anomaly detection, power plant predictive maintenance, electronic nose applications; (5) Smart Systems - TANGO hybrid decision support, AI-enabled video calls, ScolioSIM spine prediction, PACT-NBS urban design. The institute also provides educational services through the AI Master Class program on AI regulation.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• IVIAN – Serbian Language Anonymizer Software tool that masks 13 types of personal data (names, dates, account numbers, JMBG, phone numbers, company names, MBR, PIB, postal codes, locations, emails, IP and URL addresses) in unstructured Serbian text, supporting both Cyrillic and Latin scripts. Available as a web application for organizations handling Serbian-language personal data.
• Verif.ai – Fact-Checking Search Engine Open-source generative search system providing real-time, verifiable fact-checking in biomedical texts produced by generative language models. Combines fine-tuning, prompt engineering, and lexical/semantic search; developed jointly with Bayer AG and presented at AI Camp Berlin and Open Web Search Symposium Munich.
• IVI Translator (Serbian to 52 languages) Large-scale NLU model with 2.7 billion parameters that translates from Serbian into 52 other languages. Developed in collaboration with Peng Cheng Laboratory in China.
• AI Mammography Diagnostic Platform Computer-vision and deep-learning platform (using convolutional neural networks) that provides automated diagnostic analysis and lesion probability estimates on mammographic images. Developed in collaboration with the Institute of Oncology and Radiology of Serbia; trained on thousands of patients.
• Rare Disease Early Diagnosis AI AI pilot using NLP techniques to accelerate early diagnosis of Fabry disease and Hunter syndrome. Deployed in collaboration with University Clinical Center of Serbia, University Children's Clinic Tiršova, KBC Zemun, and Takeda Pharmaceutical.
• Therapeutic Peptide Design Platform Generative AI platform that designs peptides for protein binding using AlphaFold 2 for binding-affinity prediction. Developed in collaboration with a US startup.
• Therapeutic Small Molecule Design Platform Generative AI platform for designing therapeutic small molecules and predicting molecular properties from small experimental datasets. Developed in collaboration with a Japan-based startup.
• ARTIFACT – AI for Urban Flood Resilience AI framework for urban flood prediction and resilience that combines AI with engineering approaches. Includes the TC-GTN Temporal Convolution Graph Transformer Network for hydrological forecasting. Developed under Horizon Europe with TU Delft, IHE Delft, and TU Hamburg.
• DrinaAI – Hydrological Inflow Prediction AI framework for daily inflow prediction in the Drina River basin reservoirs, integrating machine-learning algorithms with historical inflow patterns, meteorological variables, and reservoir accumulation data.
• REWARDING – Remote Water Quality Monitoring AI-based framework for water quality monitoring, prediction, and alerting in river systems. Integrates with existing water quality measurement systems to improve environmental decision-making.
• C.O.R.E. – Carbon-Organic Remote Sensing Explorer Deep-learning solution for monitoring and verifying organic carbon in soil, using satellite inputs, meteorological data, and soil reference datasets to reduce complexity and increase reliability.
• AI-WELD – Collaborative Welding Automation AI-based automated welding system using collaborative robots and computer-vision algorithms for quality control and process automation. Developed under Interreg with the Centre of Competence for Advanced Engineering (CEKOM), Croatia.
• Power Plant Predictive Maintenance AI AI-based predictive maintenance system for thermal power plants, providing early fault detection and optimized operations. Developed for Elektroprivreda Srbije (EPS) Nikola Tesla thermal power plant with the Institute Mihajlo Pupin.
• Manufacturing Anomaly Detection System Computer-vision and AI system for real-time detection of product anomalies during manufacturing processes, supporting quality control in industrial operations.
• Telekom Customer Service AI AI solution for automated topic modeling and categorization of customer service emails, using Serbian-language NLP models. Deployed as a pilot with Telekom Srbija to improve customer support quality.
• Melanoma Recurrence Prediction AI Machine-learning solution for predicting Stage I-III melanoma recurrence using clinical-pathological characteristics from the National Melanoma Registry of Serbia. Analyzes survival rates, recurrence, and disease-free progression.
• ScolioSIM – Spine Curvature Prediction Deep-learning solution (CNN using depth maps and Point Cloud Transformer using 3D point clouds) for predicting spine curvature from 3D back surface scans, providing a radiation-free alternative to X-ray imaging.
• EmbrAIsme – SME AI Adoption Program Interreg Europe program helping SMEs embrace AI, delivered through a consortium of 10 partner organizations from 8 European regions. Run from April 2024 for four years.
• TANGO – Hybrid Decision Support Systems Horizon Europe project delivering the theoretical foundations and computational framework for Hybrid Decision Support Systems (HDSS) that enable synergistic human-machine decision-making.
• AI Master Class on AI Regulation Educational program covering the legal and ethical challenges of AI regulation, delivered with the Faculty of Organizational Sciences (FON) at the University of Belgrade; has certified over 110 participants.
• Electronic Nose Process Monitoring Industrial application of electronic-nose AI technology for minimally invasive monitoring and control of production processes, with primary applications in food and beverage industry quality control and biochemical process monitoring.
• Predictive Pharmaceutical Supply Chain (Ivory Coast) AI platform for predictive pharmaceutical supply chain management in Ivory Coast, covering 25 million users across 1,752 locations. Humanitarian project aimed at improving access to family-planning healthcare products.
• AI-Enabled Video Calls Secure, encrypted AI-powered video calling solution for real-time participant engagement tracking during online classes or meetings, with planned expansion to transcript generation and semantic search. Suitable for local deployment.
• PACT-NBS – Public Engagement in Urban Design Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions project bridging the public engagement gap in Nature-based Solutions using serious games integrated with public-values frameworks for co-creating urban design solutions.
• Biomedical Named Entity Recognition (Few-Shot) Few-shot transfer-learning method enabling named entity recognition for biomedical entities using binary token classification, requiring minimal or no additional training examples.

Quantifiable outcome

• AI mammography platform trained on thousands of patients, providing lesion probability estimates for breast cancer detection
• +5 more outcomes

Named customers12 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability12 records

Feature10 records

Partnerships

25 partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Science and Technology Park of Belgrade (NTP Beograd)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2024IVI and NTP Beograd signed a Memorandum of Cooperation, establishing the foundation for stronger connections between the scientific-research community, the innovation ecosystem, and the economy in Serbia. This agreement formalizes joint commitment to developing an environment that fosters innovation and accelerates the application of research results in practice.
• Elixir GroupcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2024IVI and Elixir Group signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) formalizing the beginning of a strategic cooperation aimed at applying advanced AI solutions in industrial and business environments. The agreement establishes a framework for joint activities in R&D, digital transformation, and technology transfer.
• Elektrotehnički institut Nikola Tesla (Electrotechnical Institute Nikola Tesla)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2024IVI signed a Business-Technical Cooperation Agreement with the Elektrotechnical Institute Nikola Tesla. This document formalizes cooperation between the two R&D institutions with the aim of strengthening joint action in strategically important areas – artificial intelligence, energy, and digital transformation. The agreement provides for mutual exchange of knowledge and experience.
• JP Pošta Srbije (Serbian Post)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2024IVI and JP Pošta Srbije signed a cooperation agreement for the implementation of joint technical and scientific R&D projects. Director Ćulibrk stated that the joint efforts will lead to innovative solutions in postal services through AI applications.
• Faculty of Organizational Sciences (FON), University of BelgradecoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2024IVI and FON formalized their cooperation through a strategic agreement enabling the realization of numerous R&D projects and programs in AI. The first joint initiative was the 'AI Master Class: Regulating Artificial Intelligence – Legal and Ethical Challenges,' with scholarships announced.
• Faculty of Technical Sciences (FTN), University of Novi SadcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2024IVI co-organizes the EEML Summer School with FTN Novi Sad and Google DeepMind scientists. FTN is IVI's key academic partner in Novi Sad, hosting the main office within the Science and Technology Park.
• Telekom SrbijaminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2024IVI executed a pilot project with Telekom analyzing customer service emails using NLP and Serbian language models to improve customer support quality. This was a billable consulting engagement.
• Institute Mihajlo PupinminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2024IVI and Institute Mihajlo Pupin jointly developed and deployed an advanced system for multi-day inflow prediction for the Drinsko-Limski basin, using machine learning algorithms combining current and historical hydrological and meteorological data.
• Elektroprivreda Srbije (EPS)minorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2024IVI collaborated with EPS on a predictive maintenance project for Nikola Tesla thermal power plant, developed with Institute Mihajlo Pupin. The project uses AI models for early fault detection, reducing downtime and optimizing operations.
• Institute for Oncology and Radiology of SerbiaminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2024IVI, in collaboration with the Institute of Oncology and Radiology of Serbia, is developing a software application to improve mammography analysis quality using AI models. Deep learning methods, particularly convolutional neural networks, are used for image processing.
• Google DeepMindcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2024IVI, together with a team of Google DeepMind scientists, organized the Eastern European Machine Learning Summer School (EEML) – one of the most prestigious regional AI education events. EEML 2024 attracted 190+ participants from 47 countries.
• Bayer AGcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2024IVI and Bayer AG jointly developed the Verif.ai system – an open-source generative search engine with verifiable answers for fact-checking in biomedical texts produced by generative language models. Presented at AI Camp Berlin and Open Web Search Symposium Munich.
• National Research Council of Italy (CNR)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2024IVI and CNR signed a Memorandum of Understanding at the Italian Embassy in Belgrade, in the presence of the Serbian Minister of Science. The first joint workshop was held at CNR-ISTI in Pisa. Italian researchers visited IVI for the DeepMicroCore project on AI in microbiome research.
• Tu Delft (Delft University of Technology), NetherlandscoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2024IVI partners with TU Delft in the Horizon Europe ARTIFACT project (AI for Flood Resilient Infrastructure). Researchers conduct exchanges at TU Delft; ARTIFACT Summer Schools are held at IVI's facilities. Joint research was presented at NeurIPS 2025.
• Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH), GermanycoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2024IVI partners with TUHH in the Horizon Europe ARTIFACT project. Project management team conducted study visits to TUHH as part of ARTIFACT's international collaboration framework.
• Centre of Competence for Advanced Engineering (CEKOM), Nova Gradiška, CroatiacoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2024IVI and CEKOM jointly implement the AI-WELD project (Interreg cross-border cooperation) for automated welding using collaborative robots and AI-based computer vision. The final AI-WELD conference was held at NTP Novi Sad.
• Takeda Pharmaceutical (Japan)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2024IVI partnered with Takeda (innovative Japanese pharmaceutical company) in a pilot project for early diagnosis of rare diseases, working with three major Serbian healthcare centers (UKCS, Tiršova, KBC Zemun).
• S4AI_HUB – Serbian European Digital Innovation Hub on AI (22 institutional partners)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2024IVI is the primary implementing institution of S4AI_HUB, a European Digital Innovation Hub on AI with 22 institutional partners across Serbia. The hub provides free digital transformation support to SMEs and startups, with a Launcher program for early-stage startups. Supported by EU funding.
• University of Eswatini / Eswatini Royal Science and Technology ParkminorGTM or Marketing Partner · 1 January 2024IVI signed a Memorandum of Understanding for cooperation in AI, technology development, and education with Eswatini. Special focus on language model development for less-resourced languages. Signed at the House of Serbia.
• Council for Advanced Technology Research, UAEminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2024IVI, the Serbian Ministry of Information and Telecommunications, and the UAE Council for Advanced Technology Research signed a MoU at the World Government Summit 2024 in Dubai, aiming to strengthen cooperation in AI and advanced technologies.
• AI4Media (Horizon 2020 project)minorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2024IVI became an associated member of AI4Media, a Horizon 2020 project focused on AI applications in the media sector with special emphasis on ethics and European values. The project brings together leading European AI and media researchers.
• GraphicsVision.Ai (International Research Network)minorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2024IVI became a member of the GraphicsVision.Ai international network of research institutions, which brings together leading research centers in AI, computer graphics, and computer vision. Membership enables IVI to expand research horizons and collaborate with eminent international partners.
• Peng Cheng Laboratory (China)minorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2024IVI collaborated with Peng Cheng Laboratory to develop an NLU model with 2.7 billion parameters capable of translating from Serbian to 52 other languages, as part of IVI's translator project.
• Ložionica and Centar za promociju naukeminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2024IVI signed a Strategic Cooperation Memorandum with Ložionica (creative innovative center), the Serbia Creates platform of the Government of Serbia, and the Science Promotion Center. Focus on science, innovation, and AI in creative industries.
• Universities in Niš (Elektronski fakultet, PMF, Mašinski fakultet)minorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2024IVI signed Scientific-Research Cooperation Agreements with the Faculty of Electronics, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, and Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, all of the University of Niš, at the 8th Advanced Technologies Forum at NTP Niš.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves8 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Emerging players

• Tempus AI: AI-enabled precision medicine company applying machine learning to clinical and molecular data. Comparable for healthcare AI research particularly oncology (mammography, melanoma recurrence) and multi-modal biomedical data applications.
• Babylon Health (now eMed): AI-driven healthcare company applying machine learning to clinical decision support and triage. Comparable for healthcare AI specifically — overlapping with IVI's mammography and rare-disease diagnostic initiatives in using AI to augment physician decision-making.
• Hugging Face: Open-source AI platform for NLP models and tooling, including low-resource language models. Comparable in the NLP/multi-language model space (overlapping with IVI's 2.7B Serbian NLU model and IVIAN anonymizer) as a community-driven alternative to closed LLM APIs.

Direct peers

• Alan Turing Institute: The UK's national institute for data science and AI, established with government backing. Highly comparable as a publicly funded national AI research institute that combines academic research with industry and government partnerships across multiple application domains.
• Mila - Quebec AI Institute: Canadian research institute for AI founded with government and industry support, focused on fundamental and applied AI research with extensive university and industry partnerships. Closely analogous in combining government mandate with applied AI across healthcare and industry.
• German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI): Germany's leading applied AI research center, operating as a public-private partnership with multiple sites and application-domain research groups. Comparable in structure: distributed sites, government plus industry funding, and applied AI focus across health, environment, and industry verticals.
• ELLIS (European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems): Pan-European AI research network with multiple units across countries, focused on foundational and applied machine learning. Comparable as a European AI research network coordinating talent and industry engagement through distributed sites and Horizon-funded collaborations.

Broad incumbents

• Fraunhofer Society: Germany's largest applied research organization with dozens of institutes working on contract research for industry and government. Comparable as a national applied-research network that converts R&D into industry applications, including AI-related institutes (e.g., IAIS, IKS).
• ETH AI Center: ETH Zurich's cross-disciplinary AI center connecting AI with industry, healthcare, and society. Comparable as an applied AI research hub combining academic excellence with industry and policy engagement in healthcare, environment, and industry applications.
• INRIA (French National Institute for Research in Digital Science and Technology): France's national public research institute for digital science including AI. Comparable as a publicly funded national research institute partnering with universities and industry on foundational and applied AI, with multiple research centers.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/@theaiinstituteofserbia7442
• Facebookfacebook.com/ai.institute.serbia
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/ai-institute-serbia
• Instagraminstagram.com/ai.institute.serbia

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles14 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about The Institute for Artificial Intelligence of Serbia