he Center for Behavior, Institutions and the Environment (CBIE) is a multidisciplinary endeavor to improve our understanding of how different types of institutions — defined as the norms and rules people use to govern common resources and provide public goods —perform within different social-ecological systems.

Founded in the summer of 2006, CBIE is a sister center of the Vincent and Elinor Ostrom Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis at Indiana University. CBIE aims to be an incubator of novel research on collective action and the commons. The center provides a place for students, visitors and faculty to discuss their research in a stimulating, interdisciplinary atmosphere and to forge and inspire new collaborative projects.