SHANGHAI, Sept. 21, 2025 — The Regional Innovation and Development Forum of the 2025 Pujiang Innovation Forum, themed “Building Regional Innovation Systems with Leading Hubs, Inter-Regional Coordination, and Distinctive Features”, was successfully held at Zhangjiang Science Hall in Shanghai on the morning of September 21. Hosted by the Ministry of Science and Technology and Shanghai Municipal People’s Government, and co-organized by the Second Department of the Ministry of Science and Technology and Tongji University, the forum gathered nearly 200 representatives from government departments, universities, research institutes, enterprises and international organizations.

LV Jing, Director of the Second Department of the Ministry of Science and Technology, noted in her speech that regional innovation systems are crucial to the national innovation system, citing their roles in supporting national strategies and providing reform experience. She added that the ministry is formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan for regional innovation to optimize the spatial layout of scientific forces.

LIU Dongmei, Party Secretary of the Chinese Academy of Science and Technology for Development, released the 2025 China Regional Science and Technology Innovation Evaluation Report, which showed China’s comprehensive sci-tech innovation score reached 80.20, up 1.77 points year-on-year. Six provinces/municipalities including Shanghai, Beijing and Jiangsu led the nation, with innovation hubs playing a growing leading role.

Keynote speeches featured international and domestic insights. Jörg Steinbach, former German official, acknowledged Germany’s challenges in innovation and expressed the need to learn from China. ZHOU Weisheng, Japanese academician, shared Tokyo’s experience, offering six insights for Shanghai, including strengthening top-level design and integrating industry-university-research. CHEN Qiang from Tongji University proposed five steps for region-specific innovation ecosystems, while LI Lin of Elsevier emphasized knowledge innovation driven by technologies like generative AI. ZHANG Haibo of Liaoning’s Science and Technology Department introduced Liaoning’s efforts to build a regional innovation center.

The forum, hosted by LV Peiming, Executive Vice President of Tongji University, and HUO Jiazhen, dean of Tongji’s institute, served as a platform for exchanges, with experts agreeing on the importance of localization, coordination and openness in regional innovation.