China News Service, Wenzhou, October 14 (Zhang Yicong) "After seven years of hard work, the World Young Scientists Summit has not only become an important brand of China's non-governmental science and technology diplomacy, but has also truly reshaped Wenzhou's innovation ecology and injected lasting impetus into Wenzhou's high-quality development." On the 13th, Shen Linjie, deputy secretary-general of the People's Government of Wenzhou City, Zhejiang Province, said at the 2026 World Young Scientists Summit (hereinafter referred to as this Youth Science and Technology Conference) media symposium.
This year's Youth Science and Technology Conference will be held from October 24th to 25th, with the general theme of "Gathering Talents from Around the World to Create a Better Future" and focusing on the annual topic "Global Youth Action in the AI Era - Building a Sustainable Future." Nearly 800 Chinese and foreign guests gathered on the banks of the Oujiang River for a science and technology appointment at the C position of the youth station.
"Youth Science and Technology Conference has grown into a high-level youth scientific and cultural exchange event in China, an important brand for civil science and technology diplomacy, and a key platform for linking global innovation resources." Gao Chunbo, Vice Chairman and Secretary-General of the World Federation of Young Scientists, said at the symposium that this Youth Science and Technology Conference will be comprehensively upgraded from three dimensions: international cooperation, academic resources, and youth networks.
According to reports, this Youth Science and Technology Conference will adopt a "1+12+1+N" activity structure: 1 plenary meeting, 12 parallel thematic forums, 1 "Gravity π" exchange event, and N local theme activities.
Judging from the previous sessions, this year has achieved many breakthroughs at the international cooperation level - for the first time, the Academy of Sciences of Developing Countries (TWAS) was introduced as the guest international organization. 22 TWAS Young Correspondence Academicians from 15 countries participated in the conference. The China Association for Science and Technology plans to sign a five-year cooperation agreement with TWAS; a European special session was simultaneously opened, and the "China-Europe Youth Voices Answers for the Future" forum was held in Brussels, Belgium, to promote the formation of a "China-Europe Young Scientists Scientific and Technological Cooperation and Governance Consensus".
Judging from the conference structure, overseas guests came from about 60 countries and regions, and the number of sources hit a record high. The 12 parallel forums are all planned by the Youth Working Committee of National Societies, gathering resources from 14 national societies, and focusing on cutting-edge tracks such as embodied intelligence, brain-computer intelligence, new materials, and life and health. Four of the forums directly focus on AI and embodied intelligence.
"Youth are reunited because of science." Zhang Heng, member of the Party Leadership Group and Secretary-General of the Zhejiang Association for Science and Technology, expressed the most distinctive background of this Youth Science and Technology Conference in six words: young scientists have moved from "participants" to "protagonists" - more than 80% of the representatives under the age of 45 participated in the conference, and the proportion of youth presentations exceeded 50%, both the highest in history.
This year's Youth Science and Technology Conference will also release the "Report on the Distribution and Flow of Young Scientists in the Field of Embodied Intelligence" and the Global Young Scientists Pioneer List 2035, issue the Sustainable Development Young Scientist Award, and select a group of young science and technology innovation stars. At the same time, the "Intelligent Ouyue·Qingke Practicing" doctoral program was launched, and 100 outstanding representatives of the National Youth Training Program were selected to come to Wenzhou to carry out practical docking in conjunction with Wenzhou's industrial layout to achieve two-way empowerment of young talent cultivation and local industry upgrading.
It is worth mentioning that the annual topics of this Youth Science and Technology Conference will include AI and embodied intelligence throughout the entire agenda. The conference will also unite more than 50 domestic and foreign high-level journals to collect papers and release a number of innovation and entrepreneurship consensus and industry reports.
As the carrier for the transformation of the core achievements of this Youth Science and Technology Conference, the "Gravity π" activity is committed to promoting the transformation of the resources of the Youth Science and Technology Conference from "conference exchange" to implementation. The event has four major exhibition areas, which sequentially present patent source innovation (0 to 1), pilot process maturation (1 to 10), "four" industrialization results (10 to 100), and innovation ecological docking, completely replicating the entire process of scientific research results from the laboratory to the market.
If you ask, what will the Qingke Association leave behind? The answer is that the three functional platforms of Science and Technology Island, Achievements Supermarket, and Spark Plan will be supported for youth science and technology innovation, bringing together more than a thousand scientific and technological innovation achievements, and building a mechanism of "enterprises setting the topic, youth revealing the list, and capital assistance", with technical managers accompanying the entire process.
Since landing in Wenzhou in 2019, the Youth Science and Technology Association has connected with more than 110 countries and regions around the world and 119 international science and technology organizations, invited more than 7,400 experts and scholars to Wenzhou for exchanges, and launched 117 innovation platforms and 1,244 science and technology projects. The business headquarters of the World Federation of Young Scientists has also settled in Wenzhou.
It is reported that this Youth Science and Technology Conference is co-sponsored by the China Association for Science and Technology, the Zhejiang Provincial People's Government, and the World Federation of Young Scientists, and is hosted by the Zhejiang Association for Science and Technology and the Wenzhou Municipal People's Government.
