site.btaGoogle Provides Fresh USD 1 Mln to INSAIT Institute

The Institute for Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence and Technology (INSAIT) at Sofia University has received new funding from Google in the amount of USD 1 million. According to the Ministry of Education and Science’s press centre, the money will be used to develop a new generation of artificial intelligence systems that can learn and adapt to new situations.

The donation will support INSAIT's research activities by providing additional computing resources and supporting their national Explorer programme, which helps talented Bulgarian students pursue higher education in computer science in Bulgaria. This contribution builds on Google's initial support to the institute in 2022, which included USD 3 million in Google Cloud credits and two DeepMind scholarships for doctoral students. This helped establish INSAIT as a leading center for artificial intelligence research and talent development in Bulgaria. In 2024, Google expanded this collaboration by supporting the training of generative AI models, thereby increasing the institute's scientific capacity and talent development.

Google's support is also evident in the large language models (LLMs) developed by INSAIT and based on Google's Gemma series. One such model is BgGPT, the first Bulgarian large language model recognized by Google DeepMind and Google Research in a series of posts on the company's official blog. Recently, the MamayLM models were introduced - a new generation of open models for the Ukrainian language based on the Gemma2 and Gemma3 series.

According to the Ministry of Education and Science, Google's continued support for INSAIT reflects its long-term commitment to the responsible development of artificial intelligence, support for local talent, and strengthening the artificial intelligence ecosystem in Bulgaria and the region through INSAIT.