ECNU Releases Top 100 Global Science and Technology Innovation Centers List: Beijing and Shanghai Rank in Top Ten, While Central and Eastern Cities Decline
A World Geography Conference Held in Shanghai Yields Fruitful Results
On November 23, the “Second (2024) World Geography Conference” was held in Shanghai. On that day, the East China Normal University (ECNU) Institute for Global Innovation and Development (GIS) globally released the “Top 100 Global Science and Technology Innovation Centers (2024)”.
According to the evaluation, the top 30 global science and technology innovation centers are: San Francisco-San Jose, New York, London, Beijing, Boston, Tokyo, Paris, Los Angeles, Seoul, Shanghai, Chicago, Munich, Shenzhen, Washington, Seattle, Singapore, Hangzhou, Stockholm, Austin, Philadelphia, Houston, Osaka, San Diego, Hong Kong, Toronto, Berlin, Basel, Guangzhou, Amsterdam, and Dallas-Fort Worth.
Du Debin, Dean of the ECNU Institute for Global Innovation and Development, explained during the interpretation that the 2024 edition of the list continues to use the evaluation system from the previous year. It scientifically assesses the development trends of 140 global science and technology innovation centers from five dimensions: global aggregation of innovation elements, scientific research leadership, global sourcing of technological innovation, global driving force of industrial transformation, and global support for the innovation environment. These dimensions encompass 14 secondary indicators and 33 tertiary indicators. By comparing the results from previous years, the development trends and future outlook of global science and technology innovation centers are revealed.
The evaluation results show that the “North America-Europe-Asia-Pacific” triangle pattern of global science and technology innovation center development is becoming more solid. Of the top 100 global science and technology innovation centers, 99 are located in these three regions, which is an increase of 4 compared to 2023. Furthermore, the Asia-Pacific region has surpassed Europe and North America in the number of top 100 science and technology innovation centers, with 35 centers, while Europe and North America have 33 and 31 centers respectively in the top 100.
Notably, the United States and China form the two poles of global science and technology innovation centers. The number of U.S. science and technology innovation centers in the global top 100 increased by 1 from 2023 to 27, and it continues to occupy 12 of the top 30 spots and 4 of the top 10 spots. San Francisco-San Jose remains the top global science and technology innovation center, maintaining its global leadership in the dimensions of global aggregation of innovation elements, global sourcing of technological innovation, and global driving force of industrial transformation. China has 21 science and technology innovation centers in the global top 100, with 6 in the top 30. Beijing maintains its position as fourth globally and first in the Asia-Pacific region, while also continuing to lead globally in scientific research leadership. Shanghai retains its position as tenth globally and fourth in the Asia-Pacific region.
For China, the top and western science and technology innovation centers have shown steady improvement, while most eastern and central science and technology innovation centers have experienced a decline in rankings. Over the past year, the development of China’s science and technology innovation centers has shown certain regional and hierarchical differences. Specifically, top-tier science and technology innovation centers have shown steady improvement, western science and technology innovation centers have made steady progress, while most eastern and central science and technology innovation centers have declined. Firstly, Beijing and Shanghai remain in the first tier (top 10) of global science and technology innovation centers, both maintaining their relative rankings. Shenzhen and Hangzhou also remain in the second tier (10th to 20th) of global science and technology innovation centers, both showing an upward trend in rankings, rising from 14th and 20th in 2023 to 13th and 17th in 2024, respectively. Secondly, western science and technology innovation centers have made steady progress, with Chengdu, Xi’an, and Chongqing rising from 67th, 69th, and 90th in 2023 to 64th, 68th, and 86th in 2024, respectively. Finally, other eastern and central science and technology innovation centers have shown a declining trend, with cities such as Guangzhou, Nanjing, Taipei, Wuhan, Suzhou, Changsha, and Ningbo experiencing varying degrees of decline in rankings.
It is worth noting that China’s science and technology innovation centers face severe challenges in aggregating innovation elements and fostering an innovative environment. Compared to 2023, China’s science and technology innovation centers have shown a significant decline in the dimension of global aggregation of innovation elements. Beijing has fallen out of the top 10, ranking 18th. Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, and other cities have also experienced varying degrees of decline, indicating that China’s science and technology innovation centers face severe challenges in aggregating global innovation elements. In the dimension of global support for the innovation environment, China’s science and technology innovation centers still perform poorly. Among the top 30, only Beijing and Hong Kong have entered the top 30, and none have entered the top 10. This indicates that creating a high-quality urban innovation environment remains a top priority for China to coordinate the development of international and regional science and technology innovation centers and enhance the overall effectiveness of the national science and technology innovation system.
On the same day, at the main venue of the 2024 World Geography Conference, the initiation of the editing and publication of the “Hu Huanyong Collected Works” was also announced.
People mostly know Hu Huanyong because of the “Hu Line”. In 1935, the 34-year-old young scientist Hu Huanyong mapped out the dense population of over 400 million people in China on that year’s map, revealing a geographical dividing line that implicitly represented the distribution pattern of China’s population. This line has constructed a discourse system for Chinese human geography and become an important tool for understanding the structure of Chinese human geography.
In fact, Hu Huanyong’s nearly 70-year research career has left far more academic wealth than that. He was prolific in his writings, and his research covered various fields such as human geography, regional geography, and physical geography. The collected works to be edited and published this time will deeply explore and discuss Hu Huanyong’s important research achievements and insights in geopolitics, world pattern, and international relations through the discovery of “new materials”. It will elaborate on Hu Huanyong’s geostrategic research achievements and academic thoughts that have influenced later generations, promote the wisdom of his microscope and telescope approach to scholarship, and demonstrate the principles of harmony, coexistence, and a shared future, continuously contributing to the development of geography and national construction.
As Hu Huanyong once said, geographical research requires both a “microscope” to observe China’s current situation and a “telescope” to view the global trends. On November 23, the “World Country and Regional Geography Research Series (First Volume)”, jointly planned by the ECNU Center for World Geography and Geostrategy Research and the Commercial Press, was also officially released. Based on China’s development reality, it focuses on Asian countries and regions to promote the steady progress of the “Belt and Road” initiative. Following the paradigm and technical framework of geographical science research, it provides detailed introductions to the geographical environment, geographical drivers and constraints of socio-economic development of the studied countries or regions from the aspects of location geography, physical geography, human geography, economic geography, and regional geography.
The “World Country and Regional Geography Research Series (First Volume)” was released.
In the future, this series will continue to conduct in-depth research on over 200 countries and regions worldwide, publishing in phases and batches with a focus on countries and a supplement of regions. It will also conduct thorough analyses of important countries such as the United States and Russia, publishing relevant geographical works to help Chinese people understand the world and the world understand China, contributing professional wisdom and providing a professional Chinese solution to the construction of a community with a shared future for mankind.
