Executive Summary
Global innovation and development in 2023 was clouded by uncertainties. The digital economy is one of the few economic sectors that is booming in an ever-changing world. Innovation, however, remains an important engine for economic growth. In a time of rapid change, global innovation hubs (GIHs) have shown new characteristics. The Global Innovation Hubs Index (GIHI) developed by the Center for Industrial Development and Environmental Governance (CIDEG) at Tsinghua University, with data services and translation support from Nature Research Intelligence, has been tracking and analysing year-on-year changes and the latest trends in global innovation since 2020. The GIHI2023 continues to apply scientific, objective, independent and impartial principles in evaluating 119 GIHs by three indicators known as research innovation, innovation economy, and innovation ecosystem, providing a reference for policy-makers, entrepreneurs, and practitioners.
The GIHI2023 has expanded its assessment scope in the following ways:
First, the number of evaluated cities has increased from 100 to 119, which includes 108 global innovation hubs and 11 mini-hubs. Although accounting for only 11.28% of the world’s total population, these 119 cities/metropolitan areas are home to the top innovation resources in the world, boasting 134 world-leading universities, 150 of the top 200 world-class research institutions, 1,373 unicorn companies (which are individually valued at more than US$1 billion), and 1,847 leading innovative enterprises. They have attracted 280 winners of top scientific awards including Nobel prizes, the Turing Award and the Fields Medal.
Second, the GIHI2023 has added two sections on discipline hubs and artificial intelligence patents. Focusing on discipline hubs further explores the concept of knowledge creation in research innovation to better capture the knowledge creation capability and characteristics of the dominant disciplines of GIHs. In the artificial intelligence patents, the number of valid invention patents, the number of high-quality patents and technological strengths are used to compare GIHs in AI innovation capabilities and analyse their competitive edge.
The GIHI2023 comprehensively evaluates the GIHs using three dimensions – research innovation, innovation economy and innovation ecosystem. The assessment results are as follows:
The GIHI2023 top 20 cities/metropolitan areas overall are San Francisco-San Jose, New York MA, Beijing, London MA, Boston MA, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, Tokyo MA, Baltimore-Washington, Paris MA, Shanghai, Seoul MA, Singapore, Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, Dallas-Fort Worth, Munich, San Diego MA, Chapel Hill-Durham-Raleigh and Zurich.
Overall, the GIHI2023 has drawn the following conclusions:
First, the international innovation landscape continues to move towards multipolarity, with European and American cities still taking the lead and Asian cities catching up rapidly to disrupt the previous bipolarity. The development characteristics of bay areas and mini-hubs are even more distinct. The innovation capability of Asian cities continues to improve and more Asian cities are included in the GIHI shortlist, highlighting the increasing multipolarity of the GIHs. More Chinese cities have become GIHs, with a total of 23 Chinese cities/metropolitan areas on the list in 2023, up by four from 2022. Bay area cities hold prominent advantages in innovation resource integration, with four of the top ten cities/metropolitan areas overall being bay areas. Each bay area displays its own innovation patterns, for example, San Francisco Bay Area is a strong performer in innovation economy and innovation ecosystem. New York Bay Area excels in research innovation owing to its profound research strength. Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and Tokyo Bay Area rank sixth and seventh and are seen as exemplars of Asia’s innovation system. Mini-hubs with a population of less than one million are small and refined. The number of mini-hubs has increased to 11 in 2023, all of which are in Europe and North America except for Jerusalem in Asia.
Second, GIHs have strong agglomeration and spillover effects. San Francisco-San Jose, New York MA and Beijing exert strong agglomeration and spillover effects, which are embodied in the active flow of innovation resources. Large-scale aggregation of innovation resources provide solid support while spillover effects facilitate innovation and empowerment. As capital cities, London MA, Tokyo MA, Baltimore-Washington, Paris MA, and Seoul MA have stronger spillover effects than agglomeration capacity and they support and amplify innovation activities and results of other cities/metropolitan areas. Cities/metropolitan areas including Boston MA, Shanghai, and Singapore have demonstrated stronger agglomeration capacity than spillover effects, gathering a large amount of high-end innovation resources around the world and playing key roles in the global innovation network.
Third, Europe and the United States still lead the world in research innovation but Asian cities/metropolitan areas are gaining a competitive edge while trying to catch up. The top 20 includes 13 cities/metropolitan areas in Europe and the United States which have maintained their edge. The performance of the top 20 cities/metropolitan areas in research innovation are varied by each indicator. For example, New York MA ranks first and is leading in research innovation owing to its advantages in science and technology human resources and research institutions. Beijing, ranking second, has invested hugely in scientific infrastructure and is far ahead of other cities/metropolitan areas for this indicator. Boston MA and San Francisco-San Jose focus on the synergetic development of science and technology human resources and knowledge creation. Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area has made major investments in research institutions in recent years and its performance in this single indicator is outstanding, placing it top in the world.
Fourth, in innovation economy, GIHs help strengthen global economic resilience despite the COVID-19 pandemic and the complex international landscape, serving as an important engine of global innovation. Overall, the 80-20 rule is even more evident in GIHs. The top 20 GIHs, including San Francisco-San Jose, Tokyo MA and New York MA are mostly located in the United States and Asia. Compared to the performance in last year’s index, Dallas-Fort Worth and Chicago-Naperville-Elgin have made a leap in innovation capability thanks to their economic growth.
Fifth, in innovation ecosystem, cities across Europe and the United States lead the world with their well-established infrastructure, services and innovation culture, but Asian cities are gaining momentum by supporting emerging industries with incentive policies. Geographically, about 78% of the top 50 cities for innovation ecosystem are in Europe or the United States. European cities are on a par with American cities in innovation ecosystem. The former boast a rich innovation culture while the latter stay ahead in their support for start-ups and in openness and cooperation. Asian cities, such as Seoul MA, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, Singapore, Dubai, Beijing and Shanghai, are among the top 20 and are rapidly rising in the global innovation ecosystem. These cities play an active role in the global network of openness and cooperation, provide support for start-ups and facilitate the expansion of the innovation ecosystem network. Overall, top GIHs usually have a good innovation ecosystem. Most cities, such as Dubai, London MA and Paris MA have recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic and rapid recovery of the aviation market has led to a boom in innovation.
Finally, the GIHI2023 features two new special focus sections: discipline hubs and artificial intelligence patents.
The global discipline hubs are primarily located in North America, East Asia and Western Europe. Cities in North America and Western Europe have comparative advantages in discipline-sourcing capability and discipline excellence. Regarding discipline-sourcing capability, San Francisco-San Jose, Boston MA and New York MA in the United States are in the top ten across all 22 disciplines. Notably, New York MA ranks first in eight disciplines. The discipline excellence of cities/metropolitan areas in North America and Western Europe is close to or above the global benchmark of 1%. Although the performance of emerging cities in East Asia still lag behind the global benchmark, these places are experiencing a period of quantitative change to qualitative change and stand out in some areas in discipline-sourcing capability. For example, Beijing is in the top ten in 15 disciplines and sits at the top in seven disciplines. Regarding disciplinary characteristics, cities in North America and Western Europe have relatively stronger discipline-sourcing capabilities in medicine, humanities, arts and social sciences, while cities in East Asia have made breakthroughs in science, technology, and engineering.
As AI technology continues to flourish, the frontier fields face the most intense competition. AI has seen explosive growth since 2020, with an average annual growth rate of 75.9%. Chinese cities, such as Beijing and Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, lead the world in the total number of valid invention patents, accounting for 14 spots in the top 20, and have become the main driving force of global AI technology. Tokyo MA is far ahead in high-quality patents. The percentage of high-quality patents is high in Europe and the United States. High-quality patents in cities/metropolitan areas, such as Tokyo MA, San Francisco-San Jose, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, New York MA and Seoul MA, are highly concentrated, with large high-tech enterprises playing a leading role. As for the hottest fields within AI, neural networks and genetic algorithms, machine learning and computer vision technologies are booming and cities/metropolitan areas, such as Tokyo MA, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, Beijing, San Francisco-San Jose, Seoul MA and New York MA, have become the main driving forces. Technical advantages in AI vary widely across GIHs. For example, Tokyo MA and San Francisco-San Jose possess critical basic technologies in AI and are making progress on all fronts. Chinese cities are important drivers for neural networks and genetic algorithms, image recognition and speech recognition.
Acknowledgement
We have received support from many organisations and academics during the research and writing of the GIHI2023 report. We are grateful for the support from the Research and Development Affairs Office, Tsinghua University, and the support and suggestions from the Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Commission and the Administrative Commission of Zhongguancun Science Park. We are pleased to acknowledge the support of Zhaopin.com, LinkedIn Corporation, OAG Aviation Worldwide and SmartSteps in providing data for this report.
To read the full 2023 Global Innovation Hubs Index report, please visit: www.nature.com/collections/cideg2023
Nature Research Intelligence, part of Springer Nature, provided data services and translation support; CIDEG at Tsinghua University retains editorial responsibility for all content.