In the early years of Varieties of Democracy, the Kellogg Institute for International Studies at the University of Notre Dame was one of the two founding institutions and institutional homes for the project. The Kellogg Institute for International Studies at the University of Notre Dame was an instrumental part in building and establishing V-Dem. It was initially responsible for data collection in the Western Hemisphere, hosted workshops, and funded many students who worked on the project, as well as one of the Project Coordinators. In addition, the Center for Research Computing at Notre Dame developed the research database and the web interfaces that were used from 2011 to fall 2014.

As the project grew, the V-Dem Institute in Gothenburg progressively assumed responsibility for these functions and became, in effect, the headquarters for the project. Recognizing the shifting roles, in 2018 the Kellogg Institute formalized its current role as the V-Dem Regional Center in North America, which supports research projects using V-Dem data and hosts speakers and occasional conferences and workshops. This Regional Center cooperates closely with the Kellogg Institute's Democratization Theory Research Cluster.