TWIN4DEM brings together researchers, civil society actors, and technologists to tackle one of the most urgent challenges of our time: democratic backsliding. Through interdisciplinary cooperation, the project aims to:

• Identify the root causes of democratic erosion, especially executive aggrandisement and threats to judicial independence and the rule of law.
• Create innovative tools and methodologies to promote transparency, democratic legitimacy, and civic engagement.
• Empower policymakers, civil society, and citizens with actionable insights and participatory solutions.
• Build a sustainable open-source community that fosters long-term collaboration and knowledge-sharing in the field of democracy research.

You can find out more about the project here.

Focus Areas

Digital Twins

TWIN4DEM pioneers the use of digital twins—dynamic, data-informed simulations—to model democratic systems in four countries: Czechia, France, Hungary, and the Netherlands. These tools allow researchers and practitioners to:

• Prototype and visualise democratic processes in real time.
• Simulate political scenarios and anticipate threats to democratic resilience.
• Explore policy options in a virtual, participatory environment.

Computational Social Science (CSS)
By integrating advanced data analysis with political science, the project leverages Computational Social Science to:

• Analyse large-scale political data—both textual and non-textual—in real time.
• Build GDPR-compliant, open-access tools to support civil society and democracy advocates.
• Enhance the reach and depth of democracy monitoring and advocacy efforts.

Democratic Resilience
At the heart of TWIN4DEM is a commitment to strengthening democratic resilience—ensuring that democratic systems can not only endure but thrive:

• Reinforcing democratic institutions and rule-of-law mechanisms.
• Encouraging citizen participation between elections through transparent, inclusive processes.
• Equipping democratic actors with resources to prevent, respond to, and recover from democratic threats.