The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) recently unveiled the 2026 rankings of the world’s top 100 innovation clusters. China, whose 25 innovation clusters made the latest list, topped the globe for a fourth consecutive year in the number of global top 100 innovation clusters. Qingdao secured the 33rd position in the global list, improving one spot from the previous year and ranking among China’s top 10 for a sixth consecutive year.

Over the recent years, Qingdao has worked hard to enhance the supply of high-quality scientific and technological innovation, advanced the high-level integration of technology and industry, taken steps to commercialize scientific and technological achievements in an efficient way, created to high standards an environment for scientific and technological innovation, and stayed committed to developing new quality productive forces with scientific and technological innovation. Qingdao currently is home to 17 national key laboratories and a total of more than 15,000 science and technology-based enterprises, and boasts a total of more than 2,500 field application managers. In 2025, more than RMB 220 bln worth of new loans was issued for scientific and technological innovation, and the transaction amount of technological contracts surpassed RMB 76 bln.  (Geng Tingting)