Elinor Ostrom Award on Collective Governance of the Commons - 2027
Nominations Open Now!
Deadline for Nomination - 15th October 2026
“The most important lesson…derived from the intellectual journey I have outlined…is that humans have a more complex motivational structure and more capability to solve social dilemmas than posited in earlier rational-choice theory…(which) leads me to argue that a core goal of public policy should be to facilitate the development of institutions that bring out the best in humans.”
Elinor Ostrom’s words summarise a lifetime’s research on common resources. At a time of multiple catastrophes— from severe impacts of climate change to the erosion of democratic institutions and growing inequities, along with all the social and economic upheaval these problems entail, we would do well to focus a little of our attention on how to put her insights into practice. After all, climate change and other challenges have demonstrated the centrality of shared resources to our wellbeing. In the case of climate change the impacts we are starting to experience illustrate how we all share global climatic systems, and the viral Pandemic revealed, in real terms, how the behaviour of individuals can affect, in either positive or negative ways, the lives of others. We are not individuals isolated from each other, we share a common planet, and the health of the social and ecological communities affect us all.
The Elinor Ostrom Award is an opportunity to bring some recognition to those involved in developing, operating, or studying “institutions that bring out the best in humans”, and also an opportunity to demonstrate (hopefully to a wider audience) what can be achieved when people work together in innovative ways to manage ‘their commons’, or provide new insights through diligent scholarly research.
The Elinor Ostrom Award - 2027
The Elinor Ostrom Award on Collective Governance of the Commons is made every two years and coincides with the IASC biennial global conferences on commons. The XXI Biennial IASC Conference - Centering the Commons: Resilience, Resistance, and Collective Action - will be held from June 21–25, 2027, in Makassar Indonesia
The Award is now open for nominations for the 2027 round. In this cycle, the Award will be made in two categories to recognize the work of both practitioners and scholars of commons:
1. Practitioners
2. Scholars
The Elinor Ostrom Award Winners - 2025
2025 Scholar Awardee
Krister Andersson is the Notre Dame Professor of Sustainability in the Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame (USA). His research focuses on the politics of environmental governance in the Global South, paying particular attention to the role of local institutional arrangements in explaining variation in environmental policy outcomes. His research has been published in four books, and some 90 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters.
To know more, visit https://keough.nd.edu/about/faculty-staff-directory/krister-andersson/
2025 Practitioner Awardee
KRAPAVIS (Krishi Avam Paristhitiki Vikas Sansthan) is a grassroots organization dedicated to conserving Orans (community conserved areas) in arid and semi-arid regions of Thar Desert and Aravali hill ranges in Rajasthan (India). For over three decades, KRAPAVIS has empowered local communities through ecological restoration, reforestation and the revival of traditional water systems within the Orans. It mobilises communities to document citizen science and map Orans. By fostering inclusive governance through Oran Committees and advocating at the highest legal levels, including a landmark Supreme Court ruling in 2024, KRAPAVIS has secured protection for over 25,000 Orans (covering over 600,000 hectares). Its visionary leadership and community driven model stand as a global example of sustainable commons management and environmental justice rooted in local wisdom.
To know more, visit https://www.krapavis-oran.org/
“Building trust in one another and developing institutional rules that are well matched to the ecological systems being used are of central importance for solving social dilemmas…To explain the world of interactions and outcomes occurring at multiple levels, we have to be willing to deal with complexity instead of rejecting it.”
In making the Award, we are looking for those who are grappling with complexity, in whatever form that takes. This may range from undertaking research to try to understand how to design institutions for addressing problems of global commons, to grappling with how to create governance mechanisms that address the interactions and power relations among social actors, economic activity, and ecological processes at the local level.
If you know a person, a group, or a community working with commons that you think deserves recognition then this is your chance to nominate them for an Award. The Award is open to all areas of the world.
The call for nominations is open till 15 October 2026. See the Ostrom Award Website elinorostromaward.org for more information on the evaluation criteria, the application and selection process, past winners, and the Award itself.
Note that the award application can be done only through nomination (no self-nominations please).
If you have any questions, please write to us at ostromaward@gmail.com
Are you a commons scholar or practitioner? If you aren’t already, consider becoming a member of the International Association for the Study of the Commons. Visit http://www.iasc-commons.org/ for more information.