The center is the company's first such facility in the country that is aimed at further integrating China into its global research network.

With a funding of $5 million, the five-year agreement is expected to draw academics into collaborative research that involves airplane cabin environments and designs, advanced materials, computer science and industry design.

"Technology development is critical to the success of future aviation systems, and Boeing is reaching around the world to work with the brightest minds to find the most innovative and affordable solutions possible for our customers," Matthew Ganz, vice-president and general manager of Boeing Research & Technology, said at the ceremony on Wednesday.

"This joint research center is another example of how Boeing is expanding its research capacity in China," said Al Bryant, vice-president of Boeing Research & Technology China.

Tsinghua University is among the company's 10 strategic partner universities, which also include the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as well as Cambridge and Stanford universities, to expand its global R&D initiatives.

The intellectual property rights from the research initiative will be jointly owned by the two sides and Boeing will hold the license for company purposes.

Unlike previous studies which are program-oriented, the center will bring up research topics that are mutually interesting to the committee for approval every year, said Kang Kejun, vice-president of Tsinghua University. Fan Weicheng, director of Tsinghua's center of public safety research, will head the lab.

In September, Boeing Research & Technology and the Chinese Academy of Science's Qingdao Institute of Bio-energy and Bioprocess Technology also agreed to expand their collaboration to include other research institutions and aviation supply chain entities, as part of their efforts to develop algae-based aviation bio-fuel.

Boeing has also been involved in several individual programs in many universities such as Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Tongji University, in research that includes wireless technology inside aircraft cabins.