2023

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.

The national negotiations between swissuniversities and Elsevier and also with Taylor & Francis did not lead to an agreement by mid-December 2023. The ETH Library, together with the other universities affected, is preparing for a situation without a contract from January 2024.

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.

In collaboration between the ETH Library and EPFL, the third lecture of the Swiss Year of Scientometrics (SYoS) will take place in Lausanne on 7 February 2024. Dr Elizabeth Gadd speaks about the challenges of research assessment in the context of open science.

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.