ETH ZURICH - ETH - Finanzen und Controlling

Executive Board
Providing efficient services
Report by the Vice President Human Resources and Infrastructure
The newly created vice-presidential area for
Human Resources and Infrastructure is responsible
for providing the necessary infrastructure
for teaching and research. The area comprises
the three infrastructure divisions of Human
Resources, Real Estate and IT Services, as well
as the ETH Library, the Science City project and
the ETH Supercomputing Centre in Manno.
The new “Branco Weiss Information Science Laboratory”
was opened on the Science City campus. Branco Weiss,
a former student at ETH, made this important construction
project possible with his donation of 23 million francs. The
Department of Earth Sciences has given up all its numerous
other sites and has moved into the “Natural Sciences East
and West” building, where there is over 8000 square metres
of laboratory and office space. The “Life Science Platform
HPL” laboratory building is in the process of being
completed. This is planned to provide an area of 19,600
square metres for offices, laboratories and accommodation
for animals.
The main event in 2008 with regard to human resources
was the staff survey. 42 percent of all the employees took
part in it. In general, employees are satisfied with ETH as
an employer. They like the working environment and the atmosphere
at work, and they feel that their work is appreciated.
The image of ETH Zurich in terms of its research and
innovations and its role as a responsible employer are rated
very highly. Those questioned also said that they were able
to strike a balance between family life and their professional
life. The employees are not satisfied with the opportunities
for personal development and targeted advancement. The
Executive Board values the great commitment of its employees
very highly. It has already identified some specific
measures to be taken as a result of the survey and will
implement these in 2009.
Strategic buildings management
An important focus for work relating to real estate was the
renovation and maintenance of our buildings. Of the building
expenditure of 153 million francs, 57 million were spent
on maintenance, 29 million on conversion work and 67 million
on new buildings. Some other initiatives were introduced
to reduce operating costs. Thanks to our strategic
buildings management policy, it has been possible to reduce
maintenance expenditure to about 83 francs per square
metre, leading to a saving of over 2 million francs a year.
This was despite increasing student numbers and continuing
growth in floor space. Research has benefited from the
money saved.
Reliable IT services
Teaching and research rely on a smoothly running IT and
communications structure. The reliability is far greater
nowadays and our tried and tested computing grid has
grown still further. There was no need for a new supercomputer;
better use was made of existing components. This
means that ETH Zurich now has one of the most powerful
computing clusters in Switzerland: performance has been
increased almost tenfold – from 6 to over 50 teraflops.
About 500 scientists from all ETH departments are now allocated
computing time in proportion to their financial
commitment.
Computing power
increased tenfold even
without a supercomputer.
Since October 2008, the Swiss Supercomputing Centre
(CSCS) in Manno has had a new Director: Thomas Schulthess,
Professor in Computational Physics. He replaces Marco
Baggiolini, the former President of the Università della
Svizzera Italiana in Lugano, who had been in charge of the
CSCS since 2007. Thomas Schulthess thanked his predecessor
for handing over a “centre that is high performance
in terms of its staff and its technology”. In 2008, the CSCS
for the first time allocated its computing time for the year
2009 in cooperation with the Swiss National Science
18 ETH Zurich annual report 2008