The University's John Curtin School of Medical Research (JCSMR) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine to establish a Joint Research Centre for Personalised Immunology.

JCSMR Director Professor Simon Foote and Professor Weiping Li, President of the Renji Hospital, signed the agreement at the Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine.

The MOU will serve as a framework for cooperation between the two universities and will see ANU Professor Carola Vinuesa and Shanghai Jiaotong's Professor Nan Shen work together to progress the centre.

"Bringing large patient cohorts together from different continents is essential for the discovery and validation of gene variants causing rare or complex diseases," Professor Vinuesa said.

The MOU was part of a visit by an ANU delegation to China, led by Vice-Chancellor Professor Ian Young AO, designed to strengthen research collaboration between the two countries.

The visit also included talks with Peking University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

"As Australia's national university, ANU sees China as one of its most significant partners in education and research," Professor Young said.

The China visit included more than 20 ANU researchers across materials and nano science, astronomy and astrophysics, life sciences, earth and environment, and medical research.

The delegation held a symposium on research collaborative programs with the CAS, followed by an ANU Day at Peking University.

ANU, consistently rated Australia's top university for research excellence, has cooperative agreements, exchange agreements and memoranda of understanding with 45 institutions in China.

ANU academics have also been working closely with colleagues in China. Between 2008 and 2014 ANU academics collaborated with Chinese researchers on more than 1,400 publications.

China also accounts for more than half of ANU foreign students. In 2014, ANU educated more than 1,000 undergraduate students from China and more than 2,000 postgraduates.

In partnership with the China Scholarship Council, up to 20 PhD scholarships are available for students from China to study at ANU.