UMB‘s Institute for Democracy has its roots in the university’s post-communist development and the rapid institutional response to the rise of a neo-Nazi movement that swept the 2013 regional elections in the university’s home of the Banská Bystrica region, historically a center of anti-Nazi movement in Slovakia. UMB academics worked together with civic organizations and local activists and set up successful initiatives aimed at countering this threat.

The resulting tight-knit collaboration with local communities and Slovakia’s civic sector produced a significant pool of talent in defending democracy and was in 2022 formally institutionalized in the Institute for Democracy (NGO). In 2024, a twin of IfD was established as a university-wide research center at Matej Bel University. The two institutes are now jointly working under the same Institute for Democracy umbrella name.