TWIN4DEM Horizon Europe

By combining expertise from diverse fields – social sciences, humanities, and advanced computational methods – TWIN4DEM aims to uncover the pathways behind democratic backsliding and provide actionable solutions to policymakers, civil society, and technology providers.

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.