哈佛大学儿童发展中心依托哈佛大学教育研究生院，由中心主任Jack P. Shonkoff医学博士于2006年建立，是一个多学科团队，致力于在政策和实践中推动以科学为基础的创新。中心的各种活动围绕着为科学创新建立一个研发平台，并支持甚至要求政策和实践格局合理改变。
发展中儿童研发平台“创新前沿”支持科学研究，并用这些研究为测试、实施和完善旨在为面临逆境的儿童实现更好的生活成果的策略提供信息。中心研究愿景是为面临逆境的儿童实现突破性成果的战略，基于科学进行创新。中心通过以简单，可用的方式和各种形式翻译和传达复杂的想法，刺激对科学创新的需求；培养课堂和现场的当前和未来领导者，支持他们以不同的方式思考、工作和领导；通过与致力于为儿童取得突破性成果的旅行者建立和维持互利关系，培养集体所有权的机构合作伙伴。
中心的最初使命是创造、翻译和应用科学知识，以缩小已知的和我们为改善面临逆境的儿童的生活所做的工作之间的差距。最初，研究利用有关儿童早期发展的现有知识来教育政策制定者并为早期投资提供支持。随着时间的推移，研究越来越多地将科学作为新思想的来源，以显着改善儿童的结局。目前的使命是推动以科学为基础的创新，为面临逆境的儿童取得突破性成果。
Founded in 2006 by Center Director Jack P. Shonkoff, M.D., on the basis of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, the Harvard Center for Child Development is a multidisciplinary team dedicated to promoting science-based innovation in policy and practice. The Centre's activities revolve around creating a research and development platform for scientific innovation and supporting and even demanding sensible changes in policy and practice patterns.
Frontiers in Innovation, a platform for developing children's R&D, supports scientific research and uses it to inform the testing, implementation and improvement of strategies aimed at achieving better life outcomes for children facing adversity. The Centre's research vision is a strategy to achieve breakthrough results for children facing adversity, with innovation based on science. The center stimulates the demand for scientific innovation by translating and communicating complex ideas in simple, usable ways and in a variety of forms; Develop current and future leaders in the classroom and in the field and support them to think, work and lead differently; Foster institutional partners of collective ownership by building and maintaining mutually beneficial relationships with travelers committed to achieving groundbreaking results for children.
The original mission of the Center was to create, translate, and apply scientific knowledge to close the gap between what is known and what we do to improve the lives of children facing adversity. Initially, research draws on existing knowledge about early childhood development to educate policy makers and support early investment. Over time, research has increasingly turned to science as a source of new ideas to significantly improve child outcomes. The current mission is to promote science-based innovation to achieve breakthrough results for children facing adversity.