On the move: Xi’an, capital city of Shaanxi province. [Photo/WeChat account of Xi’an Release]

Xi'an, capital city of Northwest China’s Shaanxi province, ranked 29th last year among the top 100 scientific research cities globally, according to the Nature Index – Science cities 2022.

The Nature Index looks at the policy, politics and science behind the world’s leading cities for output of high-quality research.

It’s compiled and regularly published by a subsidiary of internationally renowned scientific and technological publisher Springer-Nature Group. The list analyzed the research output of major cities and metropolitan areas around the world in 2021 in 82 natural science journals tracked by the Nature Index.

The list showed that Xi'an's contribution share score in 2021 was 430.31, while the number of papers was 1,006, accounting for 2.6 percent of the regional contribution share.

In recent years, Xi'an has continued to improve its innovation capabilities and scientific research capabilities.

The city currently boasts more than 460 scientific research institutions of various types, 164 key laboratories above the provincial level, 154 engineering technology research centers and 237 enterprise technology centers.

In recent years, the city has actively promoted the construction of major scientific and technological infrastructure – such as a high-precision, ground-based timing system and the National Molecular Medicine Transformation Science Center. It is preparing to build the National Supercomputing (Xi'an) Center and the Western Science and Technology Innovation Port.

At the same time, its investment in scientific research activities and expenditures continue to increase.

According to the "Overview of R&D Investment in Shaanxi Province in 2021" released by the Shaanxi Provincial Bureau of Statistics in September this year, Xi'an's social R&D investment in 2021 was 55.37 billion yuan ($7.85 billion), a year-on-year increase of 9.41 percent.

Moreover, its investment intensity was 5.18 percent, a year-on-year increase of 0.13 percentage points, ranking Xi’an second among sub-provincial cities in the country.