On September 25, 2025, following in-depth prior discussions, the College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering (CESE) of Peking University formally  signed a five-year cooperation agreement with the Department of Neuroscience, Imaging and Clinical Sciences of the University of Chieti–Pescara, Italy.

Founded in 1960, the University of Chieti–Pescara is a public university of higher education renowned for its excellence in medicine and health sciences. The Department of Neuroscience, Imaging and Clinical Sciences, part of the University’s School of Medicine and Health Sciences, is one of its leading departments. Under the terms of this agreement, the two parties will deepen collaboration in academic exchange and scientific research, with specific initiatives including joint applications for research projects, faculty and student exchange programs, the sharing of research resources, and the co-authorship of publications.

The agreement signing ceremony took place during the International Staff Training Week Conference hosted by the University of Chieti–Pescara, which ran from September 22 to 26 under the framework of the EU Erasmus+ program. On September 25, during the conference, Professors Jing Shang and Jicheng Gong from the Department of Environmental Health at CESE signed the agreement on behalf of the college (see Figure 1). Also in attendance at the conference were Lan Ma and Tao Xue—Ms. Ma serves as Director of the Overseas Development Office under Peking University’s Office of International Cooperation, while Professor Xue is affiliated with the School of Public Health of Peking University. It is anticipated that, under this new cooperation framework, the Department of Environmental Health at CESE will deepen its engagement with Italian counterparts in interdisciplinary research initiatives, including those focused on environmental medicine.

CESE boasts a long-standing history of collaboration with Italian universities. In 2018, it entered into a five-year cooperation agreement with the University of Catania. Throughout the agreement period, the two parties carried out faculty exchange programs, jointly supervised Italian PhD candidates and postdoctoral researchers, and facilitated a one-week exchange program at Peking University for 17 Italian undergraduate students. The newly established partnership with the University of Chieti–Pescara is expected to drive innovative collaborations in the fields of environmental medicine, environmental health, and neuroimaging. It will also serve as a more expansive platform for international academic exchange and cooperation, benefiting faculty members and students from both institutions.

Figure 1. Signing ceremony for the cooperation agreement.

(From left to right: Lan Ma, Jing Shang, Stefano Sensi, Pierluigi Sacco, Jicheng Gong; Prof. Stefano Sensi serves as Dean of the Department of Neuroscience,

Imaging and Clinical Sciences, and Prof. Pierluigi Sacco is the Rector’s Delegate for International Relations of the University of Chieti–Pescara)