The University of Oslo (UiO) is Norway’s largest and oldest institution of higher education, founded 1811. UiO is today a comprehensive research-intensive institution with eight faculties, various specialized centres and graduate level research schools and several museums with around 30 000 students and 6000 employees. The UiO has the profile of a classical research intensive University, offering a wide range of academic programmes. A cross-cutting approach to global challenges is fundamental to much of the research at UiO. Environmental-related research is conducted at six of the eight faculties as well as at the Natural History Museum and Centre for development and the environment (SUM).  Environmental related research represents about 1/3 of total research projects at the University.
The University of Oslo has a strong emphasis on internationalization. In terms of cooperation in research and education, cooperation with China is extensive and growing and involves most faculties, centres and museums, as well as several of UiO’s Centres of Excellence and prioritized interdisciplinary research areas. The Sino-Norwegian Centre for Interdisciplinary Environmental Research (SINCIERE), was initiated and is coordinated by UiO in cooperation with the Chinese Academy of Sciences and involves a network of Norwegian and Chinese institutions. Other key institutional links are e.g. the Nordic Centre at Fudan University, Shanghai, and the Chinese-Nordic Cultural Centre in Nanjing.  There is extensive cooperation in the field of medicine between the UiO and Chinese institutions, notably within cancer research. The University of Oslo has bilateral cooperation agreements with several institutions in China, including joint research and student exchange with e.g Peking University, Fudan University, Nanjing University, Wuhan University, with the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and a Norwegian language program is established at the Beijing Foreign Studies University etc.