The Executive Board reports 2018 / 2
In its last session, the Executive Board confirmed its deep commitment to the Singapore site, strengthened the position of the Animal Welfare Officer, and approved a new institute for the Department of Computer Science along with the new procurement strategy of the Facility Management department. It also secured financing for the Student Project House for 2019.
The development of ETH Zurich’s Student Project Houses has been proceeding well since 2016, when the pilot station was opened on the Hönggerberg campus (HPZ building). With the launch of the SPH in 2015, financing was scheduled to run for three years. The Executive Board approved a corresponding proposal for an annual operational budget in the amount of CHF 605,000 for 2019. Moreover, 2020 will see the Student Project House launching on ETH Zurich’s central campus, occupying the district heating power plant, which is currently being comprehensively refurbished.
Building on the SEC's success
Since its establishment in 2010, the Singapore-ETH Centre SEC has become one of ETH Zurich’s most important research centres in Asia. The two programmes running there, Future Cities Laboratory (FLC) and Future Resilient Systems (FRS), are very well established and profit from support in the form of research funding in Singapore. Each Swiss franc invested in Singapore generates at least eight francs for Switzerland. The cooperation with many other top universities on the shared CREATE campus makes it attractive for both researchers and students.
The Executive Board has now commissioned Detlef Günther in his capacity of responsible Vice President to develop a long-term strategy for the SEC with a timeframe of five to ten years. ETH is currently negotiating with Singapore’s national research fund with the aim of adding a third programme to the SEC’s agenda – “Future Health Systems” – which would offer new solutions in the field of healthcare. The Executive Board has pledged the necessary financial scope to the Vice-President.
Strengthening animal protection
Statutory requirements in the field of animal protection are constantly increasing. With the new Swiss Animal Protection Ordinance coming into effect in March 2018, ETH is obliged to strengthen its organisation. Every university that carries out experiments on animals must appoint an animal welfare officer. Major institutions like ETH must therefore expand their teams to ensure compliance with these requirements. Individuals currently active in the field of animal welfare at ETH will now be consolidated into the new “Animal Protection Group” under the Vice President Research and Corporate Relations, Detlef Günther, to be joined by a Deputy Animal Welfare Officer and a 3R Officer.
"We cannot do without animal experiments if we wish to drive science forward. But we do this with the utmost sense of responsibility and constantly ask ourselves, is there an alternative?"Detlef Günther
Being part of the 3R Competence Centre, ETH Zurich tries as far as possible to replace, reduce or refine animal experiments in research. Currently, researchers from several departments work with laboratory animals in the nine animal experiment facilities at ETH Zurich, mostly mice.
New institute structure at the D-INFK
The Executive Board has approved the establishment of a new Institute for Programming Languages and Systems. From 1 August 2018, this will encompass the three professors Peter Müller, Zhendong Su and Martin Vechev.
New procurement strategy for the Facility Management department
Paint jobs, toilet paper, energy supply – the Facility Management department at ETH Zurich is constantly purchasing goods and services in the marketplace. In order to save costs through coordinated and consolidated purchases, and to rationalise the procurement process, the Executive Board has approved the new procurement strategy of the Facility Management department. In future, for instance, the numerous provider contracts in the areas of maintenance and cleaning will be consolidated into just two – for the central campus and for Hönggerberg – and put out to tender.
For procurements that exceed the threshold value of the Swiss Federal Law on Public Procurement, framework contracts will be concluded with suppliers who can be commissioned to carry out the relevant works. This strategy reduces the number of contracts and thus the administrative costs for Facility Management while at the same time increasing individual procurement lots, which should result in more advantageous conditions for ETH Zurich.
Regular updates from the Executive Board
The ETH Zurich Executive Board meets every two weeks for its usual session. In future, brief summaries of the major decisions passed during these meetings will be found in this section. The plan is for a publication cycle of every four to six weeks, with the results from at least two Executive Board sessions covered in each summary.