DeepMark, a start-up company working on development of invisible and permanent digital marks (watermarks) that can be embedded in images, audio, and video content without compromising quality has made successful application to EuroHPC JU Development call, thus gaining 4500 node hours to Leonardo Booster partition for a period of one year. NCC Montenegro supported this project application.
Provenance for synthetic media remains unsolved: most watermarks fail after routine processing, and especially under modern AI transforms. DeepMark advance a learning-based system that co-trains a neural embedder and detector through a differentiable signal chain that mimics real pipelines. Goals of the project are: (i) lower bit-error rates at equal perceptual quality; (ii) patchable watermarking so future embedders remain detectable by a single detector; and (iii) calibrated, segment-level detection for forensics and compliance. Access to A100 nodes and a parallel file system is required to tune multi-GPU scaling and remove I/O bottlenecks.
The Chamber of Commerce of Montenegro, together with partners from the MontEENegro consortium – including the Ministry of Regional Development and Cooperation with NGOs, the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, UoM, and the Business Start-up Centre Bar – organized regional conference FINNO 2025 – Digital. Green. Sustainable, taking place on October 15, 2025, in Budva. FINNO is a regional initiative dedicated to strengthening innovation, SME competitiveness, and access to European networks and funding, developed under the Enterprise Europe Network (EEN) framework.
This conference brought together key innovation ecosystem actors, policymakers, SMEs, start-up founders, researchers, business associations, and EEN partners across the Western Balkans and Europe. The program was opened by Mirsada Bošnjak, State Secretary at the Ministry of Regional-Investment Development and Cooperation with NGOs; Dr. Nina Drakić, President of the Chamber of Commerce of Montenegro; Muriel De Grande, Head of the Enterprise Europe Network programme at the European Commission; and Prof. Dr. Radoje Vujadinović, Dean of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Montenegro.
The first panel, “Digital Transformation of SMEs – Challenges and Solutions,” highlighted the impact of emerging technologies on digital capacities and competences, knowledge and technology transfer, digital entrepreneurship, and innovative business models. The NCC Montenegro representative presented the Centre’s service and training portfolio, sharing practical insights from cooperation with industry, SMEs, and start-ups on leveraging HPC and AI technologies to optimize business processes, develop innovative products, and enhance digital competitiveness.
Beyond the first panel, FINNO 2025 explores topics such as Innovation ecosystem strengthening, European project synergies, Green transition and the circular economy. Participants also had opportunities to engage in B2B meetings with regional and European partners, start-ups, innovation centres, and research organizations.
Through its participation, NCC Montenegro reinforce its role as one of the driver of digital acceleration and innovation, highlighting the potential of HPC and AI services and NCC support for SMEs, and contributing to smart and sustainable growth in Montenegro and the Western Balkans.
On October 1, NCC Montenegro had the pleasure of welcoming Konstantin Kolotov, CTO of DIGITAL FABRIC, a company active in the field of AI and advanced digital solutions and product strategies. The visit followed an initial introduction at the KOMPact event, where both sides identified shared interests and complementary strengths in leveraging AI solutions and HPC resources, particularly in the area of smart tourism.
During discussions at the NCC Montenegro offices, Mr Kolotov as a founder and a co-founder introduced portfolio of projects and start-ups, shaping innovative use for testing and scaling AI-enabled solutions:
HiGem.ai – a platform designed for travel destinations, to enhance destination management and visitor experience.
Trendcore.ai – a solution for the fashion industry focused on AI-driven visual content generation.
Both initiatives demonstrate how AI-powered platforms can foster business innovation. The conversation also addressed advanced computing requirements, EuroHPC system access opportunities, and the role of NCC Montenegro in providing support and guidance for future developments.
In addition, the visit opened dialogue on potential academic collaboration, with a focus on digital innovation and AI applications in tourism. Joint interest was expressed in co-developing research initiatives, pilot projects, and knowledge exchange activities.
Waldur serves as a digital platform in the EuroCC project, enabling seamless management of High-Performance Computing (HPC) and related services across various European nations. As an open-source multi-cloud marketplace, Waldur provides automation, billing, and a self-service environment—making it easier for users to access compute resources, deploy solutions, and manage projects. Its modular integration with industry-standard tools, allows national competence centers to offer tailored services that meet the rapidly evolving needs of research, academia, and industry.
NCC Montenegro, leveraging Waldur, has implemented public offerings of services through HPC Service Hub: Consultation services, an HPC-for-SME Assessment Tool, EuroHPC infrastructure access support and specialized training modules. These offerings empower local innovators, SMEs, and researchers by facilitating direct access to computational resources, expert guidance, and skill-building opportunities that foster the country’s digital transformation and integration into the broader European HPC ecosystem.
The NCC Montenegro has been presented in the September 2025 edition of Glasnik, the official publication of the Chamber of Commerce of Montenegro.
The article highlights the NCC’s role in strengthening national capacities in HPC/HPDA/AI technologies, providing training, support and access to supercomputing resources for companies, academic institutions and public institutions. Glasnik emphasises why HPC and AI matter for Montenegro: faster data processing, running complex simulations, development of AI models, and accelerated innovation and product development. It describes how NCC supports SMEs and startups by enabling them to test ideas, train models, and develop new digital products without investing in costly infrastructure. Glasnik also notes practical examples of HPC use in Montenegro—financial modelling, weather prediction, smart agriculture, precise medicine and tourism 4.0. The article encourages companies to explore HPC/AI opportunities, NCC support and European supercomputing resources to enhance innovative capacities and international competitiveness.
NCC Montenegro successfully concluded its participation at the CASTIEL 2, EuroCC 2, and EuroCC4SEE conference (All Hands Meeting – AHM) held September 23–25, 2025, in Tallinn, Estonia, under the motto: “HPC in Europe – toward a resilient future”
As the final gathering for the current phases of these European HPC, HPDA, and AI projects, the conference endorsed collaborative efforts of Project Management Team (PMT), National Competence Centres (NCCs), and Centres of Excellence (CoEs) to showcase research achievements, industry results, exchange national experiences, and plan further joint initiatives to strengthen the European HPC ecosystem alongside EuroHPC JU partners.
The three-day agenda combined project updates, focused breakout sessions, and strategic discussions. Following a welcoming address, the first day focused on reviewing the status and key activities of the CASTIEL 2 and EuroCC2/4SEE projects. A core session was dedicated to Increasing Visibility, which included presentations on the fully consolidated HPC in Europe portal and the HPC Service Hub expansion – a marketplace tool connecting local users with EuroHPC expertise and resources.
The second day started with an Sustainability working session, focusing on key propositions, main drivers, and challenges of NCC business models beyond JU funding. Both days, afternoon hours were reserved for poster networking sessions, where 33 NCCs and 14 CoEs showcased local/domain HPC outreach, discussed national HPC maturity, and explored opportunities to share knowledge, practices, and activities to address local HPC needs and strengthen the European HPC network.
The third day focused on forward-looking planning, featuring discussions on EuroCC 3 / CASTIEL 3 project activities and cooperation with AI Factories, shaping the strategic direction for the next phase of European HPC collaboration. Furthermore, in parallel, breakout sessions were conducted for NCC/CoE representatives related to Industry Interaction (NCC industry contributions, challenges, and PoC analyses), Training & Skills Development (EVITA – EuroHPC Virtual Training Academy), and Communication Strategies (enhancing team communication).
NCC Montenegro’s participation in Tallinn marks a successful culmination of the current project phases, showcasing its effective industry practices, successful HPC onboarding for SMEs and start-ups, and strong commitment to providing critical HPC and AI support to innovators across Montenegro, while actively contributing to the advancement of the European supercomputing landscape.
The EuroHPC Joint Undertaking (JU) has awarded a contract to GÉANT, the Association of European National Research and Education Networks (NRENs) to hyperconnect European supercomputers. The contract aims to provide ultra-high bandwidth, secure, pan-European interconnect services for the EuroHPC supercomputing infrastructure, with the goal of giving research communities, public sector, industry, and other innovation stakeholders direct, high-performance access to EuroHPC resources.
In order to equip Europe with a world-leading supercomputing infrastructure, the EuroHPC JU has already procured eleven supercomputers located across Europe. Three of these EuroHPC supercomputers are now ranked among the world’s top 10 most powerful supercomputers: JUPITER in Germany ranks at 4, becoming Europe’s new fastest supercomputer along with LUMI in Finland (9th place) and Leonardo in Italy (10th place). Currently, the EuroHPC JU is also overseeing the implementation of 13 AI factories across Europe that offer free, customized support to SMEs and startups. The EuroHPC JU is also deploying a European Quantum Computing infrastructure, integrating diverse European quantum computing technologies with supercomputers.
GÉANT was selected after an open call for tenders (EUROHPC/2024/OP/0008) and the contract, valued at up to 60 million euro, covers the design, implementation, and operation of the hyperconnectivity infrastructure over 48 months. This agreement strengthens Europe’s supercomputing ecosystem and builds upon the existing GÉANT network infrastructure to create a hyperconnected infrastructure with transmission capabilities in the terabits-per-second range. Initial deployment activities in 27 EU Member State countries are expected to begin soon, with first services available in 2026, connecting EuroHPC supercomputers, AI, and quantum sites.
