Recently, SDAU received approval from the Ministry of Education and was officially designated as a newly added Chinese project institution of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) University after deliberation at the 9th SCO Education Ministers' Meeting, marking a significant breakthrough in the university's internationalization endeavors.

The SCO University serves as a vital multilateral educational cooperation mechanism within the SCO framework, integrating high-quality educational resources from member states to cultivate high-caliber talents. As a project institution, the university will align with China's Belt and Road Initiative and SCO regional cooperation, promoting substantive collaboration with top universities and research institutions from SCO countries in areas such as energy. Leveraging its strengths in modern agriculture, the university will enhance cooperation in agricultural higher education with member states, explore new avenues for international talent cultivation, and achieve shared educational resources. It will also facilitate agricultural technology exchanges, generate high-quality research outcomes, strengthen technology dissemination, and foster industry-university-research integration, thereby making new contributions to safeguarding food security and advancing high-quality regional agricultural development.

It is reported that the SCO University was proposed in 2007 and currently comprises over 100 project institutions (48 from China) across 11 academic disciplines.