Shanghai – September 19, 2026 -- The 2026 Pujiang Innovation Forum, held in Shanghai from September 11 to 14, drew scientists, policymakers and industry practitioners from more than 50 countries and regions plus over 20 international organizations, producing a series of concrete cross-border initiatives in science and technology governance.
Shanghai and UNESCO launch a Global Innovative Cities Alliance to pool urban innovation strategy
The alliance is designed as a platform to coordinate cross-city collaborative innovation and support an open, sustainable global sci-tech ecosystem. The forum also released the 2025 World-Class Sci-Tech Journal Directory, an evaluation framework intended to give emerging-economy and newly launched academic journals a fairer footing in global assessment standards.
South Africa becomes the first African nation named Country of Honor at the forum
The South Africa Pavilion, part of the Country of Honor program, showcased more than 10 projects spanning agriculture, medicine, aerospace and hydrogen energy. Motlalepula Gilbert Matsabisa, professor of pharmacology at the University of the Free State and an exhibitor at the pavilion, said the designation put South Africa on the global stage and demonstrated its innovation capacity. Eric Rafahele, political and economic counsellor at the South African Embassy in China, said the forum was expected to expand sci-tech cooperation and open new areas of collaboration between South Africa and China.
Organizers unveil the Pearl Constellation Initiative and CAR-T therapy for solid tumors as hard-tech breakthroughs
The forum's three tracks — basic research, future industries and innovation ecosystems — were organized across 24 sub-forums, with sessions covering AI, quantum science, brain-computer interfaces and biomedicine. Alongside the Pearl Constellation Initiative for space-based computing infrastructure, the event highlighted CAR-T therapy advances targeting solid tumors.
Ten landmark basic research questions are set to guide future high-risk funding priorities
The questions span the mathematical foundations of AI, quantum error correction, early-universe black holes, protein dynamic functions and aging heterogeneity, and are intended to steer high-risk, high-value basic research and inform sci-tech strategic planning.
Benoit Dubuis, president of the Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences, said no single country can tackle today's complex sci-tech challenges alone and that China holds unique strengths in scale and speed for joint innovation. "The Pujiang Innovation Forum offers a platform to learn from each other. I hope that one day, Switzerland will be the Country of Honor of the forum," Dubuis said. Hunan served as this year's Province of Honor. The opening ceremony featured a congratulatory message from South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, along with remarks from China's Minister of Science and Technology Yin Hejun and South Africa's Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation Blade Nzimande.
Launched in 2008, the annual forum is co-hosted by China's Ministry of Science and Technology and the Shanghai Municipal Government.