Innovative Internet technology for the entire ETH Domain
Berne/Zurich, 10.03.2022 - At its meeting on 9/10 March 2022, the ETH Board welcomed the successful completion of the ‘SCION for the ETH Domain’ project. SCION is a secure, fast and reliable Internet architecture developed at ETH Zurich. At the request of the President of the ETH Board, the gratifying result of the equal pay analysis 2020 was also noted. All six institutions met the necessary criteria in the analysis. The ETH Board also decided how resources will be allocated in 2023 and approved the consolidated reporting 2021, which will now be submitted to the Federal Council.
Secure Internet architecture SCION now in all the institutions of the ETH Domain
SCION, the network technology developed at ETH Zurich, stands for ‘Scalability, Control, and Isolation On Next-Generation Networks'. In essence, SCION facilitates a high-quality, secure and reliable connection to the Internet. As well as providing full control over the pathways followed by data as it passes through the Net, this new Internet architecture ensures confidential communication with high availability. At the end of 2018, the ETH Board decided to introduce SCION throughout the entire ETH Domain. Under the leadership of Professor Adrian Perrig, assisted by his two fellow professors Peter Müller and David Basin, the ‘SCION for the ETH Domain' project was successfully completed in June 2021, having run for two-and-a-half years in close cooperation with the ETH spin-off Anapaya. The SCION project continues, and is being deployed in a number of areas. In fact, the innovative technology is now also being utilised outside the ETH Domain. It has already been rolled out at several Swiss banks and other financial institutions, for example. Moreover, the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) is using it for communicating with the Swiss embassy in South Korea, and other embassies are to follow. SCION is also proving popular in the Swiss healthcare sector and the telecommunications industry.
Equal pay analysis 2020
The revised Gender Equality Act (GEA) came into force on 1 July 2020. Since then, employers with more than 100 employees have been required to conduct an equal pay analysis, have it verified by an independent body and inform the employees of the result. The ETH Domain voluntarily conducted equal pay analyses even before they became a legal obligation, and these have always confirmed that women and men receive equal pay in the ETH Domain.
In 2020, PwC carried out an equal pay analysis for the institutions of the ETH Domain using the scientifically and legally endorsed EQUAL-SALARY method. The analysis was checked by BDO AG in 2021 and confirms the good results of the equal pay analysis of the year 2015. At the different institutions, the pay gap between men and women varied from 2.0% in favour of men to 1.4% in favour of women: ETH Zurich: -1.2%, EPFL: -0.1%, PSI: -2.0%, WSL: -1.2%, Empa: -1.2%, Eawag: +1.4%. All these figures are well within the tolerance level of 5% set by the Confederation.
Allocation of resources for 2023
The ETH Domain is expected to receive CHF 2,731 million in federal funding for 2023. Parliament will make the final decision on the 2023 budget in December 2022. The bulk of the federal funding, CHF 2,563 million, goes to the two Federal Institutes of Technology, ETH Zurich and EPFL, and the four research institutes PSI, WSL, Empa and Eawag, for their operations and the implementation of their development plans. The rest of the funding is reserved for projects planned centrally by the ETH Board. When allocating the funds, the ETH Board takes the institutions' performance, load factors and strategic projects into consideration. ‘Performance' comprises the differing missions and their implementation by the institutions of the ETH Domain. ‘Strategic projects' include investments in data science and artificial intelligence, quantum research, cybersecurity, data-based materials research, and technology development. ‘Load factors' mainly take account of the steady increase in student numbers during recent years. Additional infrastructure is also required in connection with appointments, major construction projects (Empa-Eawag campus) and research facilities (upgrading SLS 2.0).
Consolidated reporting for 2021
The ETH Board approved the consolidated reporting 2021, which has been checked by the Federal Audit Office (SFAO). The annual report and the financial report will now be sent to the Federal Council for approval and then published. In the consolidated reporting, the ETH Domain records how far the Federal Council's Strategic Objectives for the ETH Domain for the period 2021-2024 have been met, and describes the ETH Domain's governance, key areas of focus and achievements. The financial report gives full and transparent information about the 2021 financial year in the ETH Domain and presents the consolidated financial statements for 2021 in accordance with the International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS).
Address for enquiries
Gian-Andri Casutt
Head of Communication of the ETH Board
Häldeliweg 15, CH-8092 Zurich
gian.casutt@ethrat.ch
+41 44 632 20 03
Publisher
Board of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology
https://www.ethrat.ch/en
