In recent years, the R&D expenditure of Suzhou city continues to grow. In 2012, the expenditure reached nearly 30 billion yuan , accounting for 2.6% of the local GDP.

In 2012, Suzhou city filed 139,965 patent applications, with 98,276 granted, up  37.0% and 27.2% respectively and both ranking No. 1 for two consecutive years in the country.