Guided by the principles of "complementary advantages, reciprocity, world-class achievements and mutual development", Tsinghua University has established extensive collaborations with many world leading universities, research institutes, and multinational enterprises. These forward-thinking and high-level scientific research collaborations and communications takes diversified and flexible forms, including setting up joint research institutes, framework collaboration agreements, commissioned research and development projects, joint research and development projects, and joint research funds. The goal of all these collaboration modes is to help Tsinghua University improve its scientific research practices and enhance its academic development, as well as to educate talented students with a global vision, thereby further establishing Tsinghua's international influence and reputation.

Alliance for international science and technology collaborations

By utilizing a joint funding mechanism, Tsinghua University initiated substantial technological collaboration on cutting edge areas with a lot of top level universities, with its goal of becoming an internationally renowned first-class university. The joint collaboration funds can be focused on one or more specific research areas, or they can simply be used to encourage university-wide faculty and student exchanges and to provide seed funding for joint research projects. As of the end of 2022, strategic scientific research cooperation agreements have been signed by Tsinghua and 16 universities and scientific research institutions, including the University of Cambridge, Imperial College London, Tokyo University, Tohoku University, the University of Toronto, the University of Alberta, the Imperial College of St. Petersburg in Russia, the Aachen University of Technology in Germany, with nearly 200 joint Seed Funding Programs initiated. In March 2020, Tsinghua University announced the establishment of the Chunfeng Foundation - International Scientific Research Support Program to promote international joint scientific research collaboration on Covid-19. This initiative has been embraced and supported by many other universities, and corresponding cooperation.

Joint research centers

Joint research centers usually represent long lasting relationships， and are often interdisciplinary in nature. They play an important role in the overseas scientific and research collaborations. Based on mutually beneficial strategic partnerships, Tsinghua University has set up joint research centers with world-class universities and institutes such as the University of Chicago, and Imperial College London, and with many overseas multinational enterprises, including Toyota Motor Corp., Apple Inc. , Siemens, and Robert Bosch GmbH. By actively and effectively utilizing the technological, intellectual and financial resources from both sides, many high impact scientific achievements have been made.

Joint research projects

In some key research areas, Tsinghua University has concentrated efforts in establishing contacts with world-class universities and leading enterprises in the industry to jointly launch research projects. By thoroughly understanding the needs of industry and introducing high-quality research resources from leading international enterprises, Tsinghua University is able to enhance the collaboration between industry and academia, which promotes technological innovation.

Commissioned R&D

Over the years, Tsinghua University has established long-term partnerships with many overseas enterprises in the form of commissioned R&D projects. These commissioned R&D projects not only assist the overseas enterprises to solve technological and management problems, but also provide opportunities for scientific research in key areas and help enhance academic development at Tsinghua University. Such projects also provide important information to faculty and students at Tsinghua University regarding new trends in industrial technological development, and help to promote the application of Tsinghua’s scientific research achievements in industry.