Tasks assigned to the ETH Domain by the Federal Council
The tasks assigned to the ETH Domain by the Federal Council are listed in the Annex to the ETH Domain Ordinance. These tasks go beyond the basic mandate set out in Article 2 of the ETH Act, and the two Federal Institutes of Technology and the four research institutes are compensated for these tasks or may levy fees for them.
The ETH Domain often bears a special responsibility for such tasks in the public interest as the only competence provider at university level in Switzerland and continues to provide such scientifically sound services at a high level and on a sustainable basis.
The Atlas of Switzerland has been the official Swiss national atlas since the Federal Council decision of 1961. Since 1995, three digital versions have been developed at ETH Zurich and published, together with swisstopo and the Federal Statistical Office (FSO).
The atlas shows phenomena and structures, as well as processes and changes, relating to all the various aspects and allows readers to experience topics such as society, economy, history, nature and environment. It offers a completely new view of Switzerland and a good overview of an area that is constantly evolving in terms of landscape, demographics and the economy.
The Center for Security Studies (CSS) at ETH Zürich is a center of competence for Swiss and international security policy. It offers security policy expertise in research, teaching, and consulting activities.
The CSS combines research and policy consultancy and, as such, functions as a bridge between academia and practice. It trains highly qualified junior researchers and serves as a point of contact and information for the interested public.
In Ticino, ETH Zurich operates the national high-performance computing centre Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS). ETH Zurich is thus continuing to implement the ETH Board’s National Strategic Plan for High-Performance Computing and Networking (HPCN Strategy) at CSCS on behalf of the Swiss Confederation. High-performance computing (HPC) is a key technology for both science and business. It complements theory and experiment and allows for new approaches to complex research questions.
The Swiss Seismological Service (SED) at ETH Zurich is the federal agency responsible for monitoring earthquakes in Switzerland and its neighboring regions and for assessing Switzerland’s seismic hazard and risk. When an earthquake happens, the SED informs the public, authorities, and the media about the earthquake’s location, magnitude, and possible consequences. The activities of the SED are integrated in the federal action plan for earthquake mitigation adopted by the Federal Council.
With regard to the protection of plants against particularly dangerous harmful organisms, the Swiss Federal Research Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL) is responsible for scientific and technical matters relating to plant health in the forestry sector. Together with the Federal Office for Agriculture (FOAG), which is responsible for this area, the WSL ensures that plant protection products used in forests (website in German, French or Italian) are suitable for their intended purpose and do not have any unacceptable side effects.
The avalanche bulletin is an official federal warning issued by the WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF. The SLF thus informs the public about the current snow and avalanche situation in the Swiss Alps and in the Jura.
Additional information about the weather’s effects in terms of avalanches and the condition of the snowpack gives users a clearer picture of the current situation and provides a basis for making their own assessment, as the information provided the avalanche bulletin cannot take the place of their own local on-site assessment.
On behalf of the Federal Office for the Environment, Empa oversees the National Air Pollution Monitoring Network (NABEL). The measurements at 16 sites all across Switzerland aid early detection of problematic air pollutants and evaluation of the effectiveness of Swiss environmental policy.
Empa is the official Technical Assessment Body (TAB) for construction products in Switzerland. Its expertise and experience enable technical assessments of newly developed building products for which there are no harmonized standards as yet.
The Ecotox Centre is the Swiss competence centre for applied, practice-oriented ecotoxicology. It serves as the primary knowledge hub and discussion platform for research and development, consulting and education in that area.
The Ecotox Centre, with its focus on aquatic ecotoxicology and risk assessment, has its main premises at Eawag in Dübendorf, with a second group, focusing on soil and sediment ecotoxicology, at the EPFL in Lausanne.
- Retention of competencies in nuclear safety, PSI
- Collection, conditioning and temporary storage of radioactive substances from medicine, research and industry, PSI
- Radiation protection stand-by service for the National Emergency Operations Centre (NEOC), PSI
- Gamma-Ray Laboratory, Eawag
- Collection of data and advisory role for forest protection, WSL (website in German, French and Italian)
- Long-term development processes in natural forest reserves, WSL
- Forest Ecosystem Research (LWF), WSL
- Swiss National forest inventory (NFI), WSL
