A grand finale for the 2026 Ningbo Silver Economy Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition took place on September 20 at the No.7 Dreamworks Yonggang Innovation Center. This year marked the city's first large-scale event focused specifically on the silver economy, where 30 standout projects competed after being selected from 180 national entries.
Project submissions began on May 18 and attracted a wide range of participants from across China. The competition covered key areas within the elderly care sector, including smart eldercare solutions, life and health technologies, care services, and residential wellness tourism. A total of 180 projects entered the contest, which was organized into three distinct tracks: Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Talent.
Data from the event organizer showed that 98 projects, or 54.4% of the total, entered the Innovation track. The Entrepreneurship track followed with 67 projects, accounting for 37.2%, while the Talent track received 15 projects, making up 8.4%. Notably, 34 projects came from outside Ningbo, with participants traveling from cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong, and Hangzhou, underscoring the competition's national reach.
During the final round, a host of "elderly-friendly high-tech" solutions designed to address the real needs of seniors were put on display. In the smart eldercare space, innovators presented caregiving robots powered by on-device multimodal large language models, intelligent health management agents capable of predicting fall risks, and smart mobility scooters that combine transportation and medical consultation features. In the life and health category, projects ranged from intelligent swallowing rehabilitation trainers and smart blood pressure-regulating grip devices to portable hemodialysis kits and home-based non-invasive gastrointestinal screening tools. These innovations aim to address everything from chronic disease management to post-operative recovery and early disease detection.
The care services sector also saw fresh approaches, including a "shared children" model for at-home elderly support, a combined online-offline platform for community-based care operations, and health tourism initiatives with a stone-culture theme. These projects are expected to offer new directions for the future of elderly care services in Ningbo.
Comprehensive support policies will back the winning projects. In addition to tiered cash prizes for each track, award winners are eligible for a host of benefits. These include up to 50,000 yuan in technology consumption vouchers, as well as access to startup guarantee loans of up to 500,000 yuan with full interest subsidies. Additional measures cover prioritized placement in local industrial parks and introductions to angel investment funds, totaling ten distinct support initiatives.
Financial backing is also strong, with six banks having already committed a combined credit line of 3 billion yuan for the competition. Furthermore, 510 million yuan in specialized credit has been allocated to related tech enterprises, and four investment institutions have reached agreements totaling 47 million yuan in intended investments with participating projects.
Selected winners are set to showcase their innovations again in November at the Ningbo Health and Elderly Care & Silver Economy Industry Expo. This upcoming event will provide a dedicated stage for the outstanding projects, helping to connect these new solutions with market and industry resources.
An official from the event organizing committee described the competition as more than just a contest. "This event is a snapshot of Ningbo's silver economy shifting from reactive approaches to proactive planning, and from traditional care models to tech-driven ones," they said. The hope is that the competition will act as a hub for attracting talent, technology, and capital, fostering more leading local companies in the sector and driving high-quality growth for the entire silver economy in the city.