- June 11, 2024
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- June 15, 2024

From June 11-15, 2024, the in-person meeting of the 2024 cohort of the Laboratories of Democracy Initiative tooke place in Austin, TX, United States. A cohort of 30 U.S. state legislators, German Landtagsabgeordnete and Canadian provincial legislators met with policymakers, research institutes, and companies and visited local best practices in Texas. The core topic for 2024 is critical infrastructure, focusing on the threats coming from natural disasters and extreme weather, pandemics, as well as cyber-attacks and sabotages. The goal of the Laboratories of Democracy Initiative is to promote values-based dialog and exchange of ideas on common political challenges at the subnational level. At the same time, the exchange promotes peer learning and helps to build transatlantic networks beyond the capital cities. The project is supported by the Transatlantic Program of the Federal Republic of Germany with funds from the European Recovery Program (ERP) of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection (BMWK).