The PEXIM Foundation has now issued its Annual Report for 2014. In 2014, the Foundation provided scholarships for three students in the academic 2014/2015. To date, in cooperation with the Cambridge Trust and other partners, the Foundation has invested 480,354 GBP (approximately 650,000 EUR) into 16 scholarships (11 from Serbia and 5 from Macedonia).

Throughout 2014, the PEXIM Foundation Alumni continued to grow stronger and are increasingly taking over responsibilities aimed at the promotion, expansion, and sustainability of the Foundation. The greatest change to the Foundation’s internal structure, and the best proof of its sustainability and the increasingly important role of the alumni, was perhaps the start of the process by which the alumni are intended to fully and officially take over the management of the Foundation. In the last quarter of 2014, it was agreed that by June 2015, the PEXIM Alumni would draft the Alumni Network Statute and start electing the President of the Alumni who is to take over the role of the Executive Director of the Foundation.

In September 2014, as a result of the Foundation’s activities and the agreements initiated in 2013, the PEXIM Foundation received its first large donation from a private-sector partner. The US company Continental Wind Serbia (CWS), which currently employs one PEXIM alumna, donated 15,000 EUR to the Foundation with the aim of supporting its work in the future. This donation is to be serve as an example for other corporations in Serbia and showcase the ways in which the Foundation can collaborate with them. In addition, the PEXIM Alumni started applying for funds with their project proposals and in 2014 two proposals were submitted – one to the Erste Bank and one to the Serbian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. They were awarded with funds from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs which will be used to cover their personal costs for organising the 4th PEXIM Cambridge dinner in 2015.

Finally, the Foundation managed to replicate the practice from Macedonia to Serbia and its first Alumnus was employed by the Government of Serbia, in the cabinet of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Public Administration and Local Government. This was a major success which will hopefully pave the way for other Alumni to support the work of the Government, and thus support their country in the most direct possible way. 

In 2014, the Alumni organised the 3rd annual PEXIM Cambridge dinner and the event became a flagship project of the PEXIM Foundation and the cornerstone of the Foundation’s cooperation with the British-Serbian Chamber of Commerce (BSCC) and the UK Embassy.

Other major successes of the Foundation in 2014 can be summarised as follows:

• The PEXIM Foundation organised a number of events and achieved a number of milestones to promote its activities and mission:
  • February 2014 — the Head of EU Delegation to Serbia, Michael Davenport, visited Mathematical Gymnasium in Belgrade to get to know the school which sends the greatest number of students to Cambridge; 
  • March 2014 — Cambridge University Yugosphere Society – CUYUS was established and the PEXIM Alumni greatly contributed to it; 
  • May 2014 — the 3rd annual PEXIM Cambridge dinner was held and a lecture “UK and its Allies, a century after the Great War – Leadership through Peace” was organised by the PEXIM Alumni; 
  • May 2014 — the Macedonian Parliament confirmed the PEXIM Foundation as an Institution of National Interest; 
  • September 2014 — the PEXIM Foundation organised a reception to present its new generation of scholars.  
• The PEXIM Foundation registered as a Microsoft vendor which was agreed with Microsoft to be the tool for expansion of cooperation with them.  Through the vendor agreement, Microsoft can financially support PEXIM activities and events.

Annual Report 2014 (pdf)