The International Development Cooperation Academy at SUIBE is a physical research institution established in May 2018 under the approval of SUIBE. In April 2019, the academy became a member of the Belt and Road Studies Network. In June 2020, it was identified by China International Development Cooperation Agency as a core think tank. In 2021, it introduced China's first China-Africa investment index.
Since its establishment, the academy has achieved initial results in team building, scientific research, academic exchange, and talent training. Its key research directions include: international development theory and policy; international development financing; aid-trade-investment relations; African economy and Sino-Africa trade and investment; Belt and Road international production capacity cooperation; and laws related to international investment. With the focus on its key research directions, every year the academy produces high-quality academic papers, and publishes books of International Development Cooperation Research Series and African Development Research Series. It also annually hosts the Forum on International Development Organized by China Society of World Economics and Forum on China-Africa Investment, both of which have had an important influence on research fields of international development and China-Africa economic and trade cooperation. The institute also actively promotes the development of China's discipline system of international development and teaching materials. It began to enroll graduate students in international development cooperation in 2020, and Ph.D. students in international development cooperation in 2022. In the future, based on its research directions and characteristics, the academy will actively carry out theoretical innovation, academic exchanges, and achievement sharing. It will conduct in-depth research and exchanges on relevant theories and policies related to the Belt and Road Initiative, especially on foreign aid, international development financing, and Belt and Road trade and investment cooperation, to promote China's opening-up strategy and the Belt and Road Initiative in the new era.