News from the Executive Board 2021 / 6

Reorganisation of VPPL

The Vice Presidency for Personnel Development and Leadership (VPPL), led by Dr. Julia Dannath, will have a new organisational structure as of 1 January 2022. In the future, this Executive Board domain will consist of the following five administrative departments together with the Office of Personnel Development and Leadership:

Counselling for Faculty and Executive Board

Head: Madeleine Lüthy
Responsibilities: Personal assistance for professors and Executive Board members

HR Consulting

Head: Lukas Vonesch
Responsibilities: Personnel consulting, vocational training, recruiting, case management, policies

Development and Leadership

Head: Martin Ghisletti
Responsibilities: Development and leadership (formerly personnel and organisational development), Career Center

HR Operations

Head: Lea Zwimpfer
Responsibilities: HR administration, payroll, digitalisation, systems and data

Diversity and Cooperation

Head: still open
Responsibilities: Diversity and equal opportunities (new unit “ETH Diversity”, formerly “Equal! Office of Equal Opportunities and Diversity”), informal and formal phases of conflict management

The tasks of the former Human Resources department will be divided among these new administrative departments. The names of these departments have already been partly adjusted (relative to what had been proposed to the Executive Board) and may be further adjusted in the future, based on discussions with the new department heads.

This reorganisation is intended to ensure that the structure of VPPL reflects ETH Zurich’s strategic goals. The aim is for this to help ETH focus more on its strategic goals and align itself with them.

The reorganisation will not result in any job losses. All management positions could or will be filled by internal staff.

Further information on the reorganisation will follow in November in the Internal news.

Employment and initial contract for doctoral students

In March 2021, the ETH Executive Board decided on various points regarding the employment conditions of doctoral students in connection with the "Directive for Doctoral Students with Employment at ETH Zurich". One point was clarified. The duration of the first employment contract for doctoral students at ETH Zurich is now set at 18 months.

Compared to the previous duration of 12 months, the new solution has the advantage that it includes both the aptitude interview after 12 months and its possible repetition after 15 months. Those who do not pass the aptitude interview will not be definitively admitted to the doctorate. The directive will be implemented when the Ordinance on Doctoral Studies comes into force on 1 January 2022 (a more detailed report will follow at a later date).

Expansion of apprenticeship programme

ETH Zurich is an important training centre for apprentices and an attractive employer for people with vocational qualifications in a variety of professions. This is also the view of the Swiss government. In order to expand vocational training throughout the ETH Domain, the number of apprenticeships offered will now be set to 7.5 percent of the overall number of administrative and technical staff.

For ETH Zurich, this entails creating 36 new apprenticeships by 1 August 2026 – taking the total from today’s 175 to 211 apprenticeships in 15 different professional fields. New apprenticeship positions are now being sought in all these fields.

As a first step, a corresponding development and action plan will be drawn up by spring 2022. Among other things, this will identify the ETH units in which new apprenticeship positions are to be created, the aim being to distribute training activities more evenly across the various departments and central administrative units in the future. Six to eight additional positions should already be advertised for the start of apprenticeships in August 2022.

Expanding the apprenticeship programme is a major concern for the Executive Board. Great thanks therefore go to all the vocational trainers who work every day to support the next generation of professionals.

New robot system for Catalysis Hub CAT+

external page Catalysis Hub CAT+ is a national research infrastructure funded by the ETH Board for the development of sustainable catalytic processes (cf. News from the Executive Board 2021 / 3 from 22.06.2021).

The associated “CAT+ East” hub, located at ETH Zurich and Empa and led by Christophe Copéret, supports research in heterogeneous catalysis by providing state-of-the-art automated instruments as well as advanced analytical methods. Artificial intelligence and machine learning are also employed.

A robotic system is now to be procured for “CAT+ East” that will allow numerous catalysts to be manufactured in a reproducible manner while simultaneously controlling their composition and structure. The Executive Board has approved this purchase.