We are very excited that our colleague Lin Ostrom receives the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences. This is a tremendous recognition for the hard interdisciplinary and multi-method endevour she and her husband Vincent have pioneered during the last 40+ years to study institutions and governance. She has been a role model in many ways, for interdisciplinary research, for woman in science, and for academic scholarship in general.

Her findings have important consequences for governance of public goods and common pool resources. Frequently blue print thinking by officials is dominating the policy debate while her research shows the importance of involvement of local stakeholders, experimentation and crafting incentive structures that match the social and ecological characteristics of the problem. Let’s hope that this international recognition have some impact on governance in practice.