The World Intellectual Property Organisation has included Tehran among the world’s top 100 leading innovation clusters, ranking it 65th.
The Iranian capital was the country’s only city to feature in the ranking.
The ranking conducted by the specialised agency of the United Nations was determined based on three main indicators: international patent registration applications under the Patent Cooperation Treaty, scientific publications and venture capital investment deals.
The ranking identifies regions with a high concentration of universities, researchers and inventors, companies and investors that play a key role in creating technologies, commercialising innovations and turning them into products or services.
According to data on Tehran, during the five years covered by the study, 405 international patent applications were filed in the city, 58,732 scientific articles were published, and 107 venture capital investment deals were concluded.
According to the World Intellectual Property Organisation’s report, engineering sciences are among the main areas of specialisation of Tehran’s innovation cluster.
In terms of patents, medical technologies ranked first, accounting for 19 per cent of patent applications filed in Tehran’s innovation cluster.
This was followed by computer technology, civil engineering, and pharmaceuticals.
The Chinese innovation cluster Shenzhen–Hong Kong–Guangzhou ranked first in the 2026 ranking of the world’s largest innovation clusters.
TV BRICS/NAN
