ETH News

Helping to shape the digital transformation, empowering brilliant young talent and more research for the health of children and adolescents: the ETH Foundation's annual report shows what the commitment of more than 2700 donors and partners has achieved for a wide range of topics in 2023.

ETH Zurich and the Dieter Schwarz Foundation have signed a far-reaching letter of intent to establish a new teaching and research centre for responsible digital transformation with a global reach. Thanks to the foundation’s donations, around 20 new professorships are to be created over the next 30 years in Zurich and on the foundation’s teaching campus in Heilbronn.

Fondation Botnar is donating an additional CHF 50 million to the University of Basel and ETH Zurich to expand the activities of the joint Botnar Research Centre for Child Health (BRCCH). This support will allow to create six new professorships with a research focus on paediatric digital health.

Researching the origins of life, supporting outstanding students and providing a boost for the new meeting place for students and the entrepreneurial community: the current Annual Report of the ETH Foundation provides an insight into what the great commitment of over 2,900 donors and partners made possible at ETH Zurich last year.

A research collaboration led by ETH Zurich and MIT will receive a further USD 15 million from the New York-based Simons Foundation to investigate the behaviour of marine bacteria and microalgae. The research will focus on microbial communities that impact the ocean’s carbon cycle.

Accelerating pioneering research, facilitating the education of talented students and advancing strategic projects – in 2020, more than 2,300 individuals, foundations and companies made donations for research and teaching at ETH Zurich.

ETH Zurich intends to further expand its leading position in quantum research, and so it is planning a highly specialised physics laboratory building on the Hönggerberg campus. A generous donation from ETH alumnus and ETH Honorary Councillor Martin Haefner is now the key step to taking the project further.

The mobility initiative launched in 2018 is gaining momentum. Konstantinos Boulouchos, the driving force behind the project, explains how far things have come since then and in which direction the initiative is set to develop.

In 2019, the ETH Foundation received some 120 million Swiss francs from private individuals, foundations and companies. Donations and bequests promote new stimulus for future teaching and for launching pioneering research projects.

In view of the global Covid 19 crisis, the Botnar Research Center for Child Health is launching an emergency initiative to develop approaches to deal with the situation.

Security in the digital world is nowhere near as tight as we tend to think, which is why ETH researchers are looking to develop a fundamentally new security architecture for data exchange that people can trust. A donation from the Werner Siemens Foundation is helping to finance the project.

The ETH Foundation received donations and bequests to the value of CHF 130.1 million from the generosity of private persons, foundations and the business community.

ETH Zurich and EPFL, in cooperation with their longstanding Swiss industry partners Bühler, Givaudan and Nestlé, are launching the Future Food Initiative. The initiative promotes innovative research approaches for sustainable food production. A select group of talented individuals will receive financial support made possible by CHF 4.1 million in donations from industry partners

A donation of four million francs from Franke will allow the Student Project House to massively expand its offering in the years to come. The “ramp-up” phase kicked off yesterday with a small ceremony.

Today, the University of Basel and ETH Zurich co-founded the Botnar Research Centre for Child Health (BRCCH) in Basel. They bring together top scientists and clinical researchers from a variety of disciplines in order to develop new methods and digital innovations for global use in paediatrics. The BRCCH is funded by a CHF 100 million contribution from Fondation Botnar in Basel.

Cryo-electron microscopy is one of the pioneering examination methods in biomedical research. Thanks to generous donations from four partners, ETH is now able to develop further in this area. The donations enable the acquisition of another device and the development of a new professorship.

At last week’s "Meet the Talent" event, donors to the Excellence Scholarship and Opportunity Programme met with recipients to learn more about their research projects and directly see the effect of their support. 

The ETH Zurich Foundation details pleasing results in its new annual report, showcasing important programmes and initiatives that were funded thanks to generous donations.

The Werner Siemens-Foundation has donated CHF 12 million to establish the Centre for Single-Atom Electronics and Photonics. ETH Zurich and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) are establishing the centre to develop new types of integrated circuits for communications networks.

The Helmut Horten Foundation has supported Zurich’s medical hub for many years. Now, a new donation to ETH will enable the strengthening of the Zurich-Ticino “health axis”.

A research project by ETH Zurich, MIT with other US universities will receive 15 million US dollars in funding from the New York-based Simons Foundation. Over the next five years, researchers will investigate how microbial communities are organised and function, with a focus on the oceans.

Patrons of the Excellence Scholarship and Opportunity Programme (ESOP) got to know scholarship students at yesterday's Meet the Talent 2017.

The ETH Zurich Foundation has an impressive year to look back on. As detailed in the foundation’s latest annual report, a total of 500 new donors became supporters of ETH Zurich in 2016.

The City Council has approved ETH’s Campus Hönggerberg 2040 masterplan. This updates the existing masterplan and serves as a planning basis for the future development of the Hönggerberg campus.

ETH Zurich will establish a professorship and new centre for media technology together with media companies Tamedia, Ringier and the NZZ Media Group. The centre aims to better integrate research and practical applications and to help the Swiss media sector make use of technological advances.

Many people see privately funded research as a threat to academic independence, but this is an incomplete view. Experts with close connections to politics and business are a logical consequence of a knowledge-based society. It is time for a fundamental debate on responsible research partnerships.

Swiss construction group Implenia will be involved in establishing a new assistant professorship for innovative and industrial construction at ETH Zurich. In an interview with ETH News, Implenia CEO Anton Affentranger explains why his company is offering its financial backing and highlights why clear rules and transparency are so important when it comes to research funding.

This Tuesday, “Meet the Talent 2016” will give patrons the chance to get to know scholarship students and learn more about their research projects. Rector Sarah Springman explains what she is hoping for from the event.

Wyss Zurich had its official opening today in the presence of Federal Councillor Johann Schneider-Ammann and Hansjörg Wyss, whose donation made the center possible. The aim of the joint development center created by ETH Zurich and the University of Zurich is to take innovative ideas from basic research and apply them in practice as quickly as possible.

The Excellence Scholarship and Opportunity Programme offers support to the best incoming master’s degree students. Globe meets three talented individuals at various stages of their journeys and gives an insight into what the programme means for them.

ETH Zurich is expanding its Zurich Information Security and Privacy Center (ZISC). A donation of five million Swiss francs has been made by Zürcher Kantonalbank to the ETH Zurich Foundation specifically for this purpose.

At “Meet the Talent 2015” last Tuesday evening, the patrons of the “Excellence Scholarship & Opportunity Programme” were able to make the personal acquaintance of their scholarship holders and their research projects.  

Programmable cells that can detect cancer, canyons on Mars that may have been formed by lava, and black holes catapulted out of the centre of a galaxy: ETH researchers made a name for themselves in 2014 with some outstanding scientific achievements and exciting hypotheses. It was also a politically charged year for all Swiss research institutions. As the year draws to a close, the ETH News editorial team looks back on some of the most memorable moments.

ETH Zurich staff has been receiving the December issue of life in these days. The ETH community magazine focuses on Ralph Eichler’s time as president of ETH Zurich.

ETH Zurich and the University of Zurich are founding a new translational research centre at the interface of medicine, science and engineering: the Wyss Translational Center Zurich. A USD 120 million donation from Dr. h.c. mult. Hansjörg Wyss to the two Zurich universities is making this possible. Through an interdisciplinary approach, the new centre aims to accelerate the development and application of innovative medical therapies and groundbreaking robotic systems.

ETH Zurich and the Wilhelm Schulthess Foundation are set to expand their research and teaching collaboration. ETH Zurich will establish a new chair to study how physical activity affects human physiology and long-term well-being. The Wilhelm Schulthess Foundation is supporting the creation of the Chair of Physical Activity and Health with 10 million Swiss francs over a 10-year period.

ETH Zurich joins a network of top education institutions to bridge the gap between engineering sciences and medicine through its collaboration with the Amgen Foundation Scholars Program.

ETH Zurich has established a new Chair of Rehabilitation Engineering with the appointment of Professor Roger Gassert to the position. The chair is affiliated to the Department of Health Sciences and Technology and will be financially supported over the coming decade with a donation of CHF 1 million from the Zurich-based company Hocoma.

ETH President Ralph Eichler's final Lokaltermin event focused on a topic close to his heart: together with five other experts from ETH Zurich, he gave representatives from the worlds of business, politics and science an insight into the unusual world of quantum physics and explained how it may be used commercially in the future.

This year’s Max Rössler Prize has gone to the nutritional biologist Christian Wolfrum in the Department of Health Sciences and Technology at ETH Zurich. He received the award and its CHF 200,000 prize money for his outstanding research in the field of adipocyte biology and lipid metabolism.

ETH Zurich is to set up a new chair for power semi-conductors in the Department of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering. ABB is supporting the chair with a donation of CHF 5 million.

Scholarship holders from the “Excellence Scholarship & Opportunity Programme” presented their work to their patrons at 2014’s “Meet the Talent” event, while ETH Rector Lino Guzzella thanked donors.

ETH Zurich has received CHF 5 million from the Coop Sustainability Fund to undertake research projects in the field of sustainable food production over the next several years. The first projects are now underway as part of the ETH World Food System initiative.

As 2013 comes to an end, one is inclined to say that it went by in a flash. The ETH News editorial team reminisces about the most tense, exciting, difficult and not least satisfying moments of the past year. With this recollection, the editorial team says goodbye to take a short holiday break between 23 December to 5 January and wishes all of its readers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

ETH Zurich is setting up a new Institute for Theoretical Studies which will offer sabbatical placements to top academics from all over the world. This has been made possible thanks to two outstandingly generous donations made by ETH alumnus Max Rössler and the Walter Haefner Foundation, each of whom have pledged 25 million Swiss francs to ETH Zurich Foundation.

ETH Zurich is to receive ten million Swiss francs from the Werner Siemens Foundation to establish a chair in deep geothermal energy. This will enable ETH Zurich to immediately fulfil its aim to launch an initiative in this promising field.