2026 Zhongguancun U30 Recruitment and Selection Launches, Looking for Young Innovators to Break Barriers

Chinanews Beijing, March 29 (Reporter Xu Jing) The parallel event of the 2026 Zhongguancun Forum annual conference— the Beijing International Youth Innovation and Development Forum— was held on the 28th. At the event, the list of the 2025 Zhongguancun U30 winners was released, and the recruitment and selection work for the 2026 Zhongguancun U30 was launched.

At the forum site, the representative of the initiators of Zhongguancun U30, Hao Yu, CEO of Legend Holdings, officially released the list of the 2025 Zhongguancun U30 winners. Thirty young entrepreneurs who have been deeply engaged in cutting-edge fields made the list. The winners exhibit distinct characteristics: starting from a high point, focusing on hard-core technology, and growing fast.

According to statistics, the average age of the 30 winners in 2025 is only 29, with the youngest being 21, demonstrating the vigorous vitality of the youth group. The educational background shows clear advantages: there are 23 people with a master’s degree or above, including 12 with doctorates. They graduated from top universities and institutions both inside and outside the country. Most studied under academicians or internationally authoritative scholars in their fields. During their studies, they took part in national-level key projects, hold multiple patents, and have solid technological reserves and strong innovation capabilities.

Parallel forum of the 2026 Zhongguancun Forum annual conference— the Beijing International Youth Innovation and Development Forum. Photo provided by the organizer

On the enterprise development front, the enterprises where the 25 winners work have completed one or more rounds of financing, with the highest being six rounds. These enterprises have broadly laid out future industries such as artificial intelligence and humanoid robots, emerging industries such as life and health and biopharmaceuticals, as well as key areas such as the digital economy and cultural and creative industries. They have made breakthroughs and taken leading positions in their respective sub-sectors, cumulatively providing nearly 1,000 employment opportunities to society, injecting youthful momentum into industrial upgrading and economic development.

Certificates were presented to the 30 winners on-site, and together with the winners, the 2026 Zhongguancun U30 recruitment and selection work was jointly launched. The discovery and empowerment of a new round of young innovation forces has officially begun.

In 2026, Zhongguancun U30 will continue to focus on the layout of high-end, precision, and cutting-edge industries, closely aligned with the needs for developing new quality productive forces. It will focus on young innovation and entrepreneurship groups under 35 years old, and around seven major fields including future industries, strategic emerging industries, and the digital economy, it will select young “breakthrough makers” with outstanding innovation ability, strong hard-core technology strength, and a spirit of breakthroughs.

To help selected candidates grow quickly, the platform will provide multi-dimensional, end-to-end empowerment support, including promotion of Beijing subway and bus advertising resources, tailored entrepreneurship training from top investment institutions, and targeted recommendations from communities of outstanding young entrepreneurs. At the same time, it will recommend, based on merit, that selected candidates join high-quality platforms such as the Beijing Youth Federation and the Youth Federation of Haidian District, to fully safeguard the growth and success of young entrepreneurs.

The Zhongguancun U30 event was initiated in 2015 in Haidian by the China Association for Science and Technology Science and Technology Communication Center, the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Human Resources, the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Communist Youth League, the Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Commission, the Zhongguancun Science and Technology Park Administration Committee, and the People’s Government of Haidian District, Beijing. It has always adhered to the mission of “finding young entrepreneurs whose work changes the world.” Over 11 years, the event has cumulatively attracted nearly 7,000 young science and technology entrepreneurs from around the world to participate, successfully selected 309 annual winners, and built a high-quality talent pipeline of young scientific and technological innovators. (End)

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