The Mahbub ul Haq Research Centre (MHRC) is the flagship centre of social science research at LUMS. It supports interdisciplinary research, scholarship and teaching on issues of human development, social exclusion and inequality across South Asia. Its vision is to co-construct knowledge on critical challenges with a community of scholars, students, practitioners and social actors to bring about transformative change for an inclusive and equitable society.

The Centre was founded in 1995 by Dr. Mahbub ul Haq, the pioneer of the Human Development Index and Human Development Reports at the UNDP. It was established as a research institute to promote human development in South Asia and began the tradition of producing the Human Development in South Asia Reports. It became part of the Lahore University of Management Sciences on 1st July 2016.