The Sino-Italian Advanced Training Program brought VIU in 2005 to start an academic cooperation with the Tsinghua University (Beijing), developing an exchange program of visiting students and professors between the Chinese university and Venice International University.
Within the framework of the exchange and research program, Venice International University hosts every year Ph.D. students from the Tsinghua Department of Environmental Science and Engineering. The students use to spend 3 months on the VIU campus on San Servolo and attend the VIU Globalization Program, developing research projects on different topics related to Sustainable Development (i.e. Water and Waste Management, Carbon Emissions and climate change, Water resource management, Air Pollution, Industrial parks, Land reclamation, Life Cycle Assessment).
Each student is appointed a local tutor for their research activity in Venice, who establishes new scientific, technical, institutional and academic relationships with the Universities and their Chinese supervisors.