We are all affected by institutions—or sets of rules—that shape our world and govern our use of resources. With competition for land, water and other limited resources intensifying, these institutions must be reviewed as societies grow and seek answers to questions that will determine their future.

Our goal is to become an internationally recognized, leading research center for the study of institutions through:

• Conducting comparative and systematic research on a diverse set of social and social-ecological systems;
• Combining experimental, ethnographic, statistical, archival, and mathematical methods;
• Contributing to the development of cyberinfrastructure for the study of institutional diversity.