Smart Centres Index 6: US And Asia/Pacific Centres Performing Strongly In Technology And Innovation

The Smart Centres Index explores the ability of global commercial centres to create, develop, and deploy technology. Leading centres in the SCI are based in places which combine an innovative, cultural centre with a high-performing university sector across STEM subjects, supported by a well-developed regulatory, commercial, and financial services.

SCI 6 Results

Leading US centres show a strong performance and Asia/Pacific centres are generally improving in the index, having lagged behind in previous editions of the SCI.
New York maintained its first position in the index, with London second.
Los Angeles and San Francisco overtook Hong Kong.
Five Western European centres feature in the top 10, with three from the US. Singapore joins Hong Kong in the top 10 among Asia/Pacific centres.
Following an average increase of 2.3% in ratings in SCI 5, the average rating in SCI 6 fell by 4.17% and only four centres rose in the SCI 6 ratings.
Seven centres rose 10 or more places in the rankings in SCI 6, while just two centres fell 10 or more places.

As a mark of continued technological progress, we asked respondents to the SCI survey to predict the time frame over which they expected quantum computers to be able to break current public key encryption. Two thirds of respondents expected this point to be reached within five years. This increase in computational power will continue to drive the way in which technology shapes our lives.

Survey Respondents’ Estimates Of The Timeframe Over Which Quantum Computers Will Enable The Breaking Of Current Public Key Encryption:

The top 20 ranked centres in SCI 6 are shown in the table below:

Full details of SCI 6 can be found at www.smartcentresindex.net

Professor Michael Mainelli, Chairman of Z/Yen said:

“If ever the world needed technology and innovation to solve global problems, this is it. Our SCI community sees a half-full glass. For example, our SCI community believes that quantum computing is developing quickly enough to soon be applied to manufacturing, scientific research, and the provision of services, though equally challenging current encryption on which all financial services rely. Moving fast and breaking things.”

We invite all those with an interest in the development of innovation centres to take part in SCI 7 by rating the financial and commercial centres you know here – smartcentresindex.net/survey/.