Archive internal news

The City of Zurich intends to take over ETH’s district heating system in the Zentrum area. With the sale, ETH is strengthening its focus and is drawing a line under a situation that has developed over time.

Remote working, lifelong learning and digital transformation: for some ETH employees, this is already a reality. Others have had little contact with these developments to date. Thanks to a new position paper and a range of support offers, all ETH employees should now be able to engage more closely with the future of work.

Anyone wishing to procure an IT product such as software or a cloud service at ETH Zurich has to meet a number of requirements. A new course programme provides support.

The ETH Foundation celebrated its twentieth anniversary last year. But why does the Foundation exist and how does it work?

ETH Zurich has published its annual report 2023 today. It provides an update on the university’s financial situation and describes how the 2025-2028 ERI Dispatch is forcing it to consider drastic measures. Stefan Spiegel, Vice President for Finance and Controlling, and ETH President Joël Mesot explain what this means for the ETH community.

The new equipment brings the Hönggerberg campus one step closer to efficient and environmentally friendly heating and cooling and helps to further reduce CO₂ emissions and the consumption of fossil fuels.

The concept for the major teaching reform has been drawn up. The consultation period will run until 14 June.

Many people at ETH Zurich are faced with the challenge of combining their professional activities with caring for family members. A new, comprehensive website and events are designed to support ETH members in this endeavour.

For over 150 years, ETH Zurich has not only been teaching technical and scientific knowledge, but also art: with the Collection of Prints and Drawings, the university has an internationally renowned institution for art on paper. But how did this come about in the first place - and what significance does this art form still have today in the age of digitalization and AI?

The official ETH app has been given a new design. In addition to the fresh look, it presents itself with an up-to-date user experience and some technical innovations.

Work on the new computing centre on the Hönggerberg (HRZ) is progressing. The foundation stone was laid last Friday, marking the start of construction. ETH Zurich is thus taking a further step towards a modern and energy-efficient IT infrastructure.

At its last meeting, the Executive Board of ETH Zurich elected members for the new Integrity Commission and confirmed new members for the Teaching Commission and the ombuds office.

What does the future of continuing education look like? The continuing education forum 2024 on April 23 will focus on perspectives and outlooks.

The new Hub is a point of contact for researchers with questions about the 3Rs – the three foundational principles of animal experimentation to which the ETH is committed: Replace, Reduce and Refine. The 3R Hub raises awareness among researchers and the public about compassionate animal research.

To promote the development and implementation of new methods for refining, reducing or even replacing animal experiments (known as the 3Rs), ETH Zurich’s Vice President for Research launched the 3R Hub. He has also expanded the university’s Animal Welfare and 3R office. In this way, ETH is affirming its position that animal experiments are necessary in many areas of basic research.

Cycling is good both for you and the environment. And it will particularly pay off in May and June when “Bike to Work” will also be offering attractive prizes for all frequent cyclists to win.

How are our scientific staff doing? To be able to answer this question better, ETH Zurich has conducted surveys among its doctoral students, postdoctoral researchers and established researchers in the last three years. The results of the 2023 surveys are now available and are pleasing.

At the end of 2023, the Executive Board decided to incorporate and further develop the role of Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) within IT Services in a new section. The position has therefore been filled anew. The new CISO Johannes Hadodo has been heading the section since 1 April 2024.

Four projects in the “Barrier-Free at ETH Zurich” program were successfully completed at the end of 2023. The quarterly reporting provides a comprehensive overview of all ongoing activities and results achieved in the 14 sub-projects. All projects have the common goal of making ETH Zurich's infrastructure accessible in accordance with the "Design for all" principle.

What will it feel like to research, teach, study and work at a climate-neutral ETH Zurich? With the launch of the "ETH net zero" programme, all ETH members are on a major expedition together towards an ambitious goal. The message: "All for zero 2030".

In 2024, ETH Zurich will be implementing a new appraisal interview format called “Dialog” for all employees. The idea is to foster ongoing discussion and mutual feedback exchange between employees and supervisors. The format was tested and evaluated as part of a pilot project in autumn 2023.

Research and innovation are needed to solve the planet’s most pressing challenges, which disproportionately affect those living in low-income countries. ETH4D’s Research Challenges and Pilot Grants fund ETH researchers to develop solutions for those living on $10 a day or less. Apply by 21 April.

At present, specialist knowledge within IT Services is spread across many specialist areas. With the first newly introduced Product Centers, we have therefore defined how we want to work together more efficiently in the future. The biggest change? Our collaboration model in the Product Centers is organized directly around customers and products. This allows us to work together efficiently, independently and in a self-organized manner to optimally implement our heterogeneous customer needs.

Since the beginning of March, members of ETH Zurich have been able to take advantage of the Respect programme to deepen their skills in respectful collaboration. The first live event is dedicated to the topic of emotion regulation. Nadia Dörflinger-Khashman, Head of Diversity and Cooperation, explains how we all benefit from the input lecture.

The call 2025–2026 of the "Germaine de Staël" programme for bilateral research cooperation between Switzerland and France has been launched. Application deadline is 15 May 2024.

New guidelines for policy engagement and science-based policy advice have been in force at ETH Zurich since February. They offer guidance for ETH members wishing to participate in the dialogue between science and policy. Benedikt Knüsel, Head of the Science-Policy Interface unit, explains the key issues in this obvious field of tension.

The Executive Board issued the 2024 regulations for the new Master's degree programme in Space Systems and the continuing education programme Master of Advanced Studies ETH in AI and Digital Technology (MAS ETH AID). It also simplified the financial planning of the Central Administrative Units. In addition, new guidelines for engagement at the science-policy interface and for the provision of political advice have been in effect at ETH Zurich since 1 February.

“Respect – Reflect – Respond”: Starting today, you’ll come across this slogan at various places at ETH Zurich. It’s part of the new Respect programme aimed at all members of the university community. These three words summarise how we should treat each other at ETH: on equal terms, willing to reflect on our own thoughts and actions, and responding appropriately in a variety of contexts.

As part of the Disability Rights Action Days, ETH Zurich is presenting the "Design for all" campaign and organizing various events: learn sign language in the "Café des Signes", change your perspective in the newly designed awareness workshop or explore the ETH buildings with the new accessible navigation app "PolyMaps".

The Informatiktage 2024 will take place from 18 to 23 March 2024. The Department of Computer Science and the IT Services of ETH Zurich invite you to a carefully curated programme. It offers something for everyone - from curious beginners to experienced experts.  

Budgeting and financial planning at ETH Zurich is to be simplified. The Executive Board has approved a proposal by the Vice President for Finance and Controlling to optimise financial planning processes.

People from more than 120 nations work at ETH Zurich. They all shape the culture and success of our university. For the next "life" magazine, we would like to focus on their cultural backgrounds - and are looking for employees who did not grow up in Europe.

The objective of the call for tenders is to find printers who can continue the ETH's printing services externally from 2025. The call for tenders is expected to start in the coming months. The search for solutions is ongoing for employees of the Print Group who have not yet found a new position internally.

Decide which internal ETH topics you would like to be regularly informed about in the future: Thanks to the new, personalisable Internal news newsletter, you can select specific topics that you want to be kept up to date on.

The Institute of Molecular Plant Biology is getting a new laboratory on the Hönggerberg. Construction work began this week and should be completed in June 2025

Not only is inflation having an impact on our heating bills, grocery shopping and the price of eating out – it is also driving up the costs faced by our community catering services. The ETH Executive Board has had no other choice but to agree to price increases across its catering operations.

Movetia, the Swiss national agency for exchange and mobility, has launched a call for its "International Programme". The programme supports cooperation in education with partner institutions worldwide.

The new rules of procedure to address scientific misconduct enter into effect on 1 June 2024 at ETH Zurich. What has changed and why a revision was necessary.

The Executive Board of ETH Zurich has issued new rules of procedure for scientific misconduct, completed the rETHink project, renamed the joint initiative with UBS to promote young STEM talent "UP4mint" and approved the implementation of a Swiss Chip Initiative.

Over the last months, laboratories at ETH had the opportunity to participate in the GreenLabs pilot and drive sustainability efforts in their lab practices. End of January 2024, the first certification ceremony of the pilot took place, awarding 19 labs for their progress. ETH GreenLabs will be further rolled out with the goal to review all labs at ETH.

Do you regularly meet up with other ETH members to yodel? Do you play exotic sports such as unicycle hockey or canoe polo with colleagues? Or do you compete with each other as gourmet chefs?

Invite a US Expert for 2 to 6 weeks to your group for lecturing, curriculum development and so much more. Submit your proposals by 28 February 2024 to benfit from full funding by the Fulbright program.  

At the start of the year, Gisbert Schneider handed over management of the Singapore-ETH Centre (SEC) to Manu Kapur. The outgoing SEC Director looks back in an interview at his three years in office and explains why he is keeping one foot in Singapore.

Hannes Pichler has been Director of the Real Estate Management Department at ETH Zurich since 2023. This means that he is responsible for the timely provision of rooms and buildings at ETH. In this interview, he explains what the savings requirements in his department mean for teaching and research and how he came to ETH.

In mid-December, climate researchers from ETH gathered in the CHN building for the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union. Although the event took place in the United States, there was no shortage of stimulating conversations and debates, nor informal exchanges over coffee.

A broad survey of students at ETH Zurich shows: Language models are still rarely used in the classroom, but they are used frequently and creatively as learning aids.

Due to an acute lack of space in the centre, the Department of Earth Sciences was looking for new storage space. Together with the Campus Services storage team, a former army ammunition depot has now been converted. Over thirty Euro pallets are already stored in the new high racks.

It has already become a tradition: at the beginning of each year, the Executive Board looks back on the past year at a town hall meeting and gives employees an outlook for the next twelve months. The recording of the Zoom event is now available.

From 2024, the ETH Library will cover the costs of publications in more journals, including Nature Communications and Scientific Reports.

Since the autumn semester 2023, automatic subtitling of lecture recordings and further information on the topic of accessible videos have been offered for the first time. The accessible navigation app "PolyMaps" won the GIS Excellence Award 2023.

The rETHink project officially concluded at the end of 2023 with the dissolution of the project organisation. We sat down with ETH President Joël Mesot, the initiator of rETHink, and Secretary General Katharina Poiger, who acted as the project leader, to learn about rETHink’s achievements and the future of organisational development at ETH.

Make your research easy to understand, present your findings in a compelling way and convey a confident image to the media: the Communication Academy course programme for the Spring 2024 Semester is now online.

Advances in digital technology and the impact of regulatory changes have led to a shift in customer preferences and needs – resulting in a decline in demand for printed media at ETH Zurich.

At the end of last year, the Executive Board of ETH Zurich approved new features in mathematics studies and elected a new Associate Vice President for Digital Transformation and Governance.

Discover ETH Zurich from a new perspective on Tuesday evenings. In 2024, the Public Tours will once again include well-known and exotic ETH locations on campus and beyond. The guided tours of the ETH institutes, laboratories, collections and archives look forward to your visit every week.

Open, diverse and inclusive science thrives on the involvement of the public and citizen participation - in other words, on Citizen Science. In order to promote such participatory research, Citizen Science Zurich awards Seed Grants once a year for the development or implementation of Citizen Science projects. ETH researchers can currently apply for funding.

In order to fulfil the savings targets, Corporate Communications has had internal news articles machine-translated since the beginning of 2024. In addition, internal communication is to be further strengthened via a personalised newsletter.

2023 was a busy year for the Vice Presidency for Personnel Development and Leadership (VPPL), with a number of initiatives launched. Julia Dannath, Vice President for Personnel Development and Leadership, looks back on them and explains both what has pleased her and what has troubled her in recent months.

ETH members toasted the past year at the Executive Board's traditional Christmas Reception. In his speech, President Joël Mesot referred to various records that we as ETH have achieved in 2023.

Special orders, such as the request from ETH researcher Vasily Sitnikov to deliver a sponge-shaped concrete block to the Old Botanical Garden, are the daily business of the Campus Services department's transport team.

The pilot test for the Leadership Feedback Process has proved positive. From 2024, all full professors will systematically obtain and address feedback on their leadership role at regular intervals. Alongside individual reflection on potential blind spots, this process will enable ETH to specifically gear and tailor the support it offers for professors.

The call for proposal of the Humanitarian Action Challenges is now open. It supports collaborative research with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to develop solutions for humanitarian action.

In the past few months, several employees have been using the parking spaces in the underground garages of ETH Zurich without payment. In many cases, the exit controls were actively and systematically avoided.

Changes in the management of the fund "Society in Science. The Branco Weiss Fellowship" as well as new elections and re-elections at the kihz Foundation: These were the topics of one of the last Executive Board meetings.  

ETH Zurich and its members have come through the pandemic well. In the meantime, studies, research, teaching and work at ETH Zurich are back in full swing. However, quite a few ETH members are unsure what to do if they notice symptoms such as a cough, sore throat or cold.  

Stalking, violence or rampages at schools are not easy topics. Nevertheless, it is important to deal with them and to know where to turn in an emergency. Here are some tips from ETH Zurich's Threat Management Team.

Grants from the Dieter Schwarz Foundation will make it possible for ETH Zurich to create around 20 new professorships. At the same time, ETH plans to establish a teaching and research centre in Heilbronn, Germany. ETH President Joël Mesot explains why this is the opening line in a success story for both ETH Zurich and Heilbronn, and what particularly pleases him about this undertaking.

Special opening times and operating hours apply at ETH Zurich around the holidays.

The Annual Academic Achievements process (AAA) has been open in ETHIS since the start of November. AAA is the academic reporting from professorships, departments and study programmes at ETH Zurich. Reports may be submitted until the end of January 2024.

The third edition of the ETH Sustainability Summit, organized by ETH Sustainability and the Student Sustainability Committee, brought together over 70 engaged individuals from more than 30 initiatives. They met to get to know each other, network and celebrate successes in the Dozentenfoyer above the city rooftops.

The Association of Scientific Staff (AVETH) and ETH Diversity granted the Diversity Award for the third time. In a ceremony held in the main building of ETH Zurich, individuals and organizations that are committed to the principles of diversity and inclusion were honoured.

As communicated some while ago, parking charges at ETH Zurich will be brought into line with market prices in a third and final step. In future, parking spaces will only be available for rent in buildings belonging to ETH Zurich. Meanwhile, the number of charging stations for electric vehicles at ETH will be increased.

Good news for doctoral students: the Executive Board is lifting the present linking of their salaries to those of the Swiss National Science Foundation. Doctoral students, postdocs and scientific assistants I and II are therefore to receive the cost-of-living adjustment defined by the ETH Board for 2024. Moreover, the standard rate for doctoral students is rising by a total of 5%.

Between March and October 2023, the many initiatives and measures implemented as part of the "smart moves" awareness campaign shone a light on how we can do even more with regard to sustainability here at ETH Zurich.

Construction work for the new computing centre on the Hönggerberg campus (HRZ) are set to begin in early 2024. Construction site setup and the preparatory work will begin today to ensure that work can start on time.

Taking a break properly has to be learnt, as not all time out from work provides the right amount of relaxation and makes us more productive. A few tips for everyday working life.

Now that all members of the department have moved into the new BSS research building, ETH Zurich's 22nd restaurant opened its doors on Monday, November 13.  

The new IT security strategy, the utilisation of the construction cost database and the relaunch of the Centre for Students & Entrepreneurs: these were topics discussed at the last meeting of the ETH Executive Board.

In the digital information era, Wikipedia plays a central role as global knowledge source. However, taking a closer look its content reveals a significant underrepresentation of women with only 18% of all entries. To increase it, a first Edit-a-thon takes place at ETH Zurich on Tuesday, November 28.

Dr Marco Humbel from the University College London shows the infrastructural challenges faced by memory institutions with their massive digitised collections.

ETH Zurich cut its energy consumption by around 7 percent over the winter of 2022/23. As of 1 October, energy-saving measures relating to room temperature and lighting are again being implemented for the winter of 2023/24. All members of the ETH Zurich community are requested to help reduce energy consumption.

ETH Zurich members are invited to participate in the conference “AI For Energy & Sustainable Manufacturing” on 9 November 2023 at ETH Zurich. The full-day event will bring together researchers, innovators, industrial decision-makers and data scientists to meet and discuss.

This conversation between PD Dr Jochen Klumpp (IT Services Group (ISG), D-HEST) and Dr Julian Dederke (ETH Library) is the third instalment in a series of interviews explaining the work of data stewards within the Data Stewardship Network and showcasing various data stewardship models at ETH Zurich.

ETH Zurich had planned to construct a building on the Hönggerberg campus for students and entrepreneurial initiatives, but costs rose so sharply over the past two years that they could no longer be justified. As a result, the Executive Board of ETH Zurich has decided to relaunch the project.

At the beginning of the year, Rector Günther Dissertori initiated a project to free up time in the academic calendar for students and to simplify the examination system. In this interview, he talks about the project’s initial findings and scenarios.

Over 2,000 students, researchers, entrepreneurs and industry representatives discussed the latest trends in artificial intelligence at the AI+X Summit 2023. Popular topics included the influence of generative AI, AI legislation, AI in medicine and trustworthy AI.

Research thrives on the open exchange of knowledge – and of data that make knowledge possible in the first place. In order to support this exchange of data, the ETH Domain’s Open Research Data Program to open up research data has been in place since the beginning of 2022. Researchers can now once again apply for funding.

Screen or blackboard? Chalk or digital pen? In the current issue of "life", Meike Akveld and Andreas Steiger from the Department of Mathematics discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the classic blackboard in the classroom. And what is your opinion? Discuss with them.

On 3 and 24 November, the Ukrainian Association of Students and Academics will be holding a collection campaign for the people in Ukraine. Your humanitarian donations will be accepted on these days on the Hönggerberg campus and at the ETH Zentrum.

Christian Wolfrum has been Vice President for Research at ETH Zurich since the beginning of the year. What are the next challenges for research and how does he propose to tackle them?

The pre-Christmas season is filled with traditions. What are some in your research group or team? Tell us in the next "life" magazine!

At the end of September, the consultation process for the draft roadmap "ETH Net Zero" came to an end. ETH Sustainability draws a positive conclusion with over 250 participations and around 500 constructive comments and remarks.

The ETH Library is offering new services contributing to a barrier-free learning environment. Moreover, the room acoustics in various meeting rooms have been improved. You are invited to a webinar on 24 October to learn more about the “Principles of universal design (design for all)”.

There is a connection between our health and the sense of belonging to a community. In our recent digital lunch time session, “Health,” now accessible via recording, discover the impact of team belonging on your individual well-being and its role in reducing burnout.

Since March 2023, the campaign «smart moves» shows how we can be even more sustainable on the road at ETH Zurich. On October 12, the second ETH bike exchange of the year will take place on the Hönggerberg in addition to the big e-bike test drive.

We aim for our printer landscape to be sustainable and cost-efficient. Currently, around 1800 trees are used up by printing at ETH every year and 80 tons of greenhouse gas emissions are emitted. It is interesting to note that a personal printer has a three times greater impact on the environment than an infrastructure printer. Therefore, it is time to act!

The fire protection courses of the SSHE teach all interested ETH members how fires can be prevented and how to react correctly in case of fire. There are still free places for the upcoming courses.

The new laboratory and research building in Basel has been awarded the "Iconic Awrad 2023" in the category "Innovative Architecture - Public / Culture / Education".

Learn about the opportunities for Fulbright grants for inviting a US scientist or studying or doing research in the USA, on 30 October 2023, 16.00h.

In collaboration with AVETH, ETH Diversity is conferring the Diversity Award for the third year this November. Individuals and organisations will be honoured for their efforts to promote diversity and inclusion at ETH Zurich. Submit your nomination now!