Oliver Hart Research Center of Contracts and the Governance was jointly established in east China university of science and technology on September 22, 2019, with Oliver Hart, a professor at Harvard, 2016 co-recipient of the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, and with the economic scholars in Shanghai Jiaotong University Fudan University and East China Normal University. Oliver Hart, an honorary professor of East China University of Science and Technology, is the director of the research center. 

The research center consists of a number of full-time and part-time researchers. The  purpose of the Research Center is to study the major economic practices initiated in China or with typical Chinese characteristics and of universal significance in the world, as well as the cases that have been successfully practiced abroad and have great application value in China. The research scope of the center includes economic theoretical research, applied research and policy research. The research center focuses on the study on contract Theory, Organizational Economics, Law and Economics, and Experimental and Behavioral economics related to the above research.