Seoul, Daejeon, Busan and Daegu have made the list of the world's top 100 Science and Technology Clusters as ranked by the World Intellectual Property Organization, the Korean Intellectual Property Office said on Aug. 28. Shown is the cityscape of the capital as seen from Namsan Mountain. (Yonhap News)

By Yoo Yeon Gyeong

Seoul, Daejeon, Busan and Daegu are among the world's top 100 Science and Technology Clusters as selected by the World Intellectual Property Organization, the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) said on Aug. 28.

The rankings are based on analyses of the scale of international patent filings over the past five years and data from Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-E) papers to rank cities with high concentration of inventors and writers of academic articles.

The latest list reaffirmed Korea's efforts to form an intensive innovation ecosystem.

The Seoul cluster placed fourth for its fourth straight year of being in the top five, reconfirming its status as a pivotal global hub of innovation.

Dubbed the nation's "science hub," Daejeon ranked 17th to finish in the top 20 for three years in a row. It was also seventh in the number of patent filings and share of science papers per one million residents.

Busan was 81st and Daegu 88th.

By nation, China had the most clusters on the list with 26, followed by the U.S. (20) and Germany (eight).

Jeong In-sik, director general of KIPO's Intellectual Property Protection and International Cooperation Bureau, said, "KIPO will support each domestic cluster's companies and academia and research community to further develop their innovation capacities by using their strengths to stay ahead in the global competition." 

dusrud21@korea.kr