Shanghai's Xuhui district has launched the selection for its 2026 Guangqi Talent Plan, which includes the Leading, Outstanding, and Youth Talent programs. Application details are as follows.

I. Categories

1. Leading Talent Program:

High-level innovative and entrepreneurial talent with exceptional professional achievements and leadership in key industrial clusters and key industry sectors.

2. Outstanding Talent Program:

Outstanding innovative and entrepreneurial talent with major professional contributions, a strong ability to build and lead teams, and significant leadership in key industrial clusters and sectors.

3. Youth Talent Program:

Young, innovative, and entrepreneurial talent with outstanding professional abilities, remarkable achievements, and strong potential for innovation and development in key industrial clusters and sectors.

II. Basic eligibility requirements

1) Strong moral character and professional integrity: Applicants must have sound moral character, abide by the law, conduct themselves with integrity, and enjoy a high standing in their industry.

2) Outstanding professional contributions: Applicants must possess solid professional knowledge and skills, independently conduct cutting-edge research and practice in their discipline or field, and have made significant contributions.

3) Significant leadership: Applicants must have a long-term vision, keep pace with development trends in their field, and play a significant leadership role in enhancing independent innovative capabilities and advancing the regional innovation system.

4) Strong team leadership and coordination: Applicants must demonstrate leadership, coordination, and organizational management skills, as well as the ability to achieve sustainable development for both themselves and their teams through creative work.

5) Applicants must also meet the following conditions:

- Candidates for the plan's Leading and Outstanding programs should generally have at least five years remaining before the statutory retirement age. Candidates for the Youth program should generally be aged 45 or below.

- Applicants engaged in basic research should generally hold a doctoral degree or equivalent senior professional qualifications.

Note: The following individuals are not eligible for application:

- Individuals who have already been selected for key talent programs or talent honors at the provincial or ministerial level or above, including national and local domestic and overseas talent programs, State Council special government allowances, and national high-skilled talent honors, and who have received district-level funding.

- Leaders of enterprises or public institutions who hold division-chief-level positions or above and no longer directly engage in professional technical work.

- Individuals whose credit checks reveal serious misconduct through the Shanghai Public Credit Information Service Platform, such as tax arrears or refusal to enforce effective legal documents, as well as other serious administrative penalties for themselves or their employers.

III. Selection process

1. Evaluation

This round of selection features four review platforms:

1) Industrial promotion:

Focus on leading corporate talent and management personnel who have made significant contributions to industrial promotion and economic growth.

2) Basic research:

Focus on research talent from universities, research institutions, top-tier tertiary hospitals, and other entities that have made significant contributions to basic research.

3) Enterprise innovation:

Focus on innovative and entrepreneurial talent in enterprises that play an important role in technological innovation and the development of new quality productive forces.

4) Comprehensive development:

Focus on talent in new quality services, the judicial field, high-skilled professions, construction management, intellectual property, and other fields. It also targets early-stage entrepreneurial talent, specifically principal founders of technology enterprises established within the past three years who are either the largest shareholder or the largest individual shareholder.

2. Process

This round of selection follows the process of recommendation and application → expert evaluation → joint review and re-evaluation → public announcement and official designation.

1) Employing organizations shall, based on the applicant's professional field and job role, complete the required form and other necessary information through the application system and submit it to one self-selected review platform.

Note: Employers may only choose one review platform for the application. Once confirmed, the platform will generally not be changed.

2) Application deadline: May 31, 2026.

3) Contact for review platforms

Platforms	Name	Tel
Industrial promotion	Yang / Xu	021-6487-2222 Ext.1293 / 021-6487-2222 Ext.3591
Basic research	Guo / Jiang	021-6428-5906 / 021-3363-0039
Enterprise innovation	Zhang	021-6487-2222 Ext.4016
Comprehensive development	Fang / Chen	021-6487-2222 Ext. 8151 / 021-6487-2222 Ext. 8151

 

Source: Official WeChat account of the Shanghai International Talent Center (ID: "sh-italent")