QINGDAO, China, Oct. 26, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- A report from Iqingdao.

On October 22, the 2026 Qingdao International Talent Innovation and Entrepreneurship Week and the 26th "Blue Fair" opened officially. Under the theme Gathering Talent and Strength for a Shared Innovative Future, the event brought together nearly 700 delegates including high-level overseas talents, returned overseas students, university research institutes and employers. It featured sci-tech project matchmaking, industry-university-institute integration and talent recruitment talks to foster new quality productive forces and deepen industry-talent integration. The Catalogue of Urgently Needed Vacancies in Key Industries of Qingdao was released at the opening ceremony.

A total of 172 global project proposals were collected, and 81 overseas high-level talents came to Qingdao to pitch their projects. Covering 26 countries and regions, these projects focus on artificial intelligence, next-generation information technology, intelligent equipment, life sciences and modern services. The team led by Liu Yiwei from the National University of Singapore presented an intelligent odor technology project that delivers multi-sensory interaction including sight, sound and smell in VR scenarios. A batch of key cooperation agreements were signed on-site.

The newly released vacancy list identified 87 urgent posts from 173 leading and backbone enterprises, focusing on four major sectors: next-generation IT, AI, life health and modern marine industries. These R&D-oriented posts offer competitive pay matching talent shortages, enabling precise alignment between industrial demand and talent supply.

A total of 3,050 job openings were released across parallel events. Highlights included an innovation exhibition for overseas returnee startups, a recruitment fair with 120 employers, and industry seminars on industry-education coordination. Overseas talents also toured industrial parks to experience Qingdao's industrial foundation and business environment.

A flagship talent recruitment platform under Qingdao's Talent-Driven City Strategy, the Blue Fair has run for 26 consecutive editions. It has connected overseas talent projects from more than 30 countries and recruited nearly 20,000 high-level overseas professionals and teams. Moving forward, Qingdao will continue to polish the Blue Fair brand, improve long-term talent matchmaking mechanisms and optimize the talent ecosystem to attract global innovators for its modern industrial system.