Did you join the kickoff of the TWIN4DEMproject – Exploring Digital Twins for Democratic Resilience?πŸš€

This event marked a major milestone, bringing together experts, researchers, and policymakers to explore how digital twin technology can strengthen democracy, tackle democratic decline, and address key ethical challenges like privacy and transparency.

Our Executive Director Marcel van Oosterhout opened the event by giving insights into Digital Twins. The discussion panel that followed consisted of diverse experts in the field:

– Clara Egger, Co-Principal Investigator, TWIN4DEM, Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences (ESSB),
– Giangiacomo Bravo, Professor of Computational Social Sciences at Linnaeus University,
– Frederike Manders, our Program Manager Immersive Tech at ECDA
– Maaike Harbers, Expert in AI & Society at Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences,
– Roland van der Heijden, Program Manager Rotterdam Citiverse at Gemeente Rotterdam,
– Erika Nika, EU Project Manager at DBC diadikasia.

πŸ’‘Key discussion topics included using digital twins in democracy research, addressing democratic challenges through innovation, and computational tools’ societal and ethical implications.

Following the plenary discussions, participants moved from theory to practice in an interactive, hands-on session at the Immersive Xperience Lab in the Erasmus Data Collaboratory. Here, they explored existing democracy dashboards alongside immersive experiences that demonstrate the potential of XR in supporting this key human right. By going beyond traditional dashboards, XR makes information more engaging, impactful, and relatable, offering a glimpse into future possibilities.

The TWIN4DEM project unites 11 European partners to prototype digital twins of political systems in Czechia, France, Hungary, and the Netherlands. Using natural language processing and simulation models, the initiative dives deep into democratic resilience, assessing policy impacts while addressing ethical and societal implications.


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