Self-Assessment Report of the ETH Board Table of Contents
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Intermediate Evaluation 2019 of the ETH Domain Self-Assessment Report Intermediate Evaluation 2019 of the ETH Domain Self-Assessment Report Adopted by the ETH Board at the meeting of 12/13 December 2018 Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL Table of Contents Table of Contents Foreword by the President of the ETH Board 7 Evaluation Mandate and Structure of the Self-Assessment Report 9 A Basic Mandate of the ETH Domain and Coordination of the Entire Swiss Higher Education Sector Introduction 13 Mission Statement of the ETH Domain 14 The Strategic Objectives of the Federal Council for the ETH Domain 15 A.1 The ETH Domain’s National Role 19 Assessment by the ETH Board 19 A.1.1 Teaching 21 A.1.2 Research 24 A.1.3 Research Infrastructures 26 A.1.4 Knowledge and Technology Transfer (KTT) 28 A.1.5 National Tasks 32 A.1.6 Public Relations 34 Appendix A.1 35 A.2 Contribution to Economic Development and Attracting Talent 45 Assessment by the ETH Board 45 A.2.1 The Economic Contribution of the ETH Domain 46 A.2.2 Switzerland Innovation 47 A.2.3 Fostering the Creation of Successful Spin-offs 47 A.2.4 Attracting Talents, especially Women 50 Appendix A.2 56 A.3 Coordination of Areas of Activity 65 Assessment by the ETH Board 65 A.3.1 Areas of Activity 66 A.3.2 Teaching 66 A.3.3 Research (incl. Research Infrastructures) 69 Appendix A.3 75 A.4 Structure, Cooperation within the ETH Domain and Strategic Alliances 81 Assessment by the ETH Board 81 A.4.1 Structure of the ETH Domain 82 A.4.2 Cooperation within the ETH Domain 83 A.4.3 Strategic Alliances 85 A.5 Cooperation with Cantons 89 Assessment by the ETH Board 89 A.5.1 Cooperation with Cantons 90 A.5.2 Criteria for Cooperation 90 A.5.3 Assessment of External Locations of the ETH Domain Institutions 91 A.5.4 Ex amples of Fruitful Cooperation with Cantons and Cantonal Institutions 92 Appendix A.5 96 4 Intermediate Evaluation 2019 Self-Assessment Report of the ETH Board Table of Contents B Conditions for the Successful Execution of the Basic Mandate Introduction 101 B.1 Key Success Factors 105 Assessment by the ETH Board 105 B.1.1 Internationality and Openness 106 B.1.2 Autonomy 107 B.1.3 Stable and Reliable Funding 109 Appendix B.1 110 B.2 Internal and External Success Factors 115 Assessment by the ETH Board 115 B.2.1 Internal Success Factors 117 C Strategic Focus Areas for Research 2017– 2020 Introduction 123 Strategic Planning Process Related to the SFAs 123 Implementation of the Action Plan on Digitalisation in the ETH Domain 124 Financial Resources Allocated to the SFAs and Digitalisation 124 Outlook for SFAs and Digitalisation in the Strategic Planning Period 2021–2024 125 C.1 Relevance and Potential of the Strategic Focus Areas 129 Assessment by the ETH Board 129 C.1.1 SFA Personalized Health and Related Technologies (PHRT) 130 C.1.2 SFA Data Science 133 C.1.3 SFA Advanced Manufacturing (SFA-AM) 135 C.1.4 SFA Energy 137 C.2 Leading Role in Digitalisation 143 Assessment by the ETH Board 143 C.2.1 Digitalisation 144 Appendix C.2 147 D Bibliometric Analysis D.1 Background and methodology 155 D.2 Results 157 D.2.1 Results for ETH Zurich 158 D.2.2 Results for EPFL 160 D.2.3 Results for PSI 162 D.2.4 Results for WSL 164 D.2.5 Results for Empa 166 D.2.6 Results for Eawag 168 D.3 Conclusions 170 E Analyses of the ETH Domain’s Economic Contribution and Patent Portfolio E.1 The Economic Contribution of the ETH Domain 175 E.1.1 Quantifiable Economic Contribution 176 E.1.2 Wider, Non-quantifiable Benefits 178 E.1.3 Comparisons 179 E.1.4 Conclusions 179 E.2 Analysis of the Patent Portfolio of the ETH Domain 180 E.2.1 Background 180 E.2.2 Methodology 180 E.2.3 Key findings 182 E.2.4 Conclusion 186 F Retrospective F.1 Implementation of the Experts’ Recommendations of the Intermediate Evaluation 2015 189 Intermediate Evaluation 2019 Self-Assessment Report of the ETH Board 5 Foreword Foreword by the President of the ETH Board The role of the ETH Domain for Switzerland, its positioning in the Swiss higher education land- scape and the implementation of its basic mandate are at the core of the 2019 intermediate evaluation. The evaluation is based on a Self-Assessment Report by the ETH Board which covers the ETH Domain as a whole. The Self-Assessment Report addresses the Terms of Reference of the 2019 intermediate evaluation, the state of the implementation of the experts’ recommen- dations made in the 2015 intermediate evaluation, a bibliometric analysis and further studies. The education of specialists, research at a top international level, and knowledge and tech- nology transfer are among the ETH Domain’s core competencies and constitute central tasks assigned to it by the Confederation. Over 32,000 students and doctoral students were enrolled at the two Federal Institutes of Technology in 2018. That is 10,000 more than ten years ago. Our economy and the authorities are reliant on recruiting these much-needed specialists. The in- stitutions of the ETH Domain are important actors in the transfer of knowledge and technology. This results in innovations in Switzerland, improves the country’s competitiveness and ulti- mately preserves jobs and prosperity. In the ETH Domain, for instance, a total of over 650 spin- offs were set up, which created approximately 23,000 jobs. On average, one spin-off is founded every week, and a patent application is filed every second day. Above and beyond this, the institutions of the ETH Domain play an important role in the digitalisation of Swiss business and society. Indeed, digitalisation constitutes the focal point of the four research areas which the ETH Board has specified as strategic priorities for the ETH Domain, namely Personalised Health and Related Technologies, Data Science, Advanced Manu- facturing and Energy. With increasing digitalisation of all areas of our society, the importance of Cybersecurity is placing heavy demands on the ETH Domain’s core competencies. In this area, the institutions of the ETH Domain already operate as centres of expertise and as partners to both public and private actors. The ETH Board concludes that the ETH Domain plays a key role in numerous areas of Swit- zerland’s education and innovation system – in training specialist staff, in basic research and in cooperation with industry and public authorities. A number of developments have called this role into question, however, and are a cause of considerable concern to the ETH Board. For one thing, Switzerland’s openness and internationality is regularly questioned – and yet international cooperation and networking have great significance for education, research and innovation, while Swiss science depends on highly skilled experts from home and abroad. For another, countries such as China, the USA and France are investing massively in research and development, whereas federally funded investments have stagnated, especially at the top level. This impacts on Switzerland, not only as a centre of research but also as a location for business and industry which is highly dependent on innovation. However, the ETH Domain will continue do its utmost to deploy its skills in order to generate the greatest possible benefit for our country while at the same time assuming its share of global responsibility for tackling urgent societal challenges. On behalf of the ETH Board, I would like to thank the expert committee for its in-depth examination of the ETH Domain. We look forward to a fruitful exchange, stimulating discussions and the committee’s most valued recommendations. Dr Fritz Schiesser, President of the ETH Board Intermediate Evaluation 2019 Self-Assessment Report of the ETH Board 7 Evaluation Mandate and Structure of the Self-Assessment Report Evaluation Mandate and Structure of the Self-Assessment Report Evaluation Mandate The Federal Council governs the ETH Domain through strategic objectives established at four-year intervals plus a corresponding four-year financial framework with yearly global budgets. The owner of the ETH Domain is the Swiss Confederation. The ETH Domain is affiliated to the Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research (EAER). The intermediate evaluation of the ETH Domain is linked to the performance mandate which the Federal Council assigned to it for the period 2017–2020. Federal Councillor J. Schneider-Ammann mandated a committee of national and inter- national experts to evaluate the ETH Domain in March 2019. The evaluation mandate states: “Since 2012 the achievement of objectives in the ETH Domain is assessed annually by the Federal Council based on a report produced by the ETH Board and Parliament is duly informed. The primary focus of the intermediate evaluation, as with that in 2015, is therefore not on the achievement of objectives by the institutions of the ETH Domain, but on specific systemic questions.” The evaluation mandate contains nine Terms of Reference in three main groups (A–C) to be addressed by the expert committee. The Self-Assessment Report is structured accordingly. Structure of the Self-Assessment Report The ETH Board has prepared the Self-Assessment Report in close collaboration with the ETH Domain institutions. The report presents the ETH Board’s view on each of the Terms of Reference. – The main part of the present report (Chapters A–C) addresses each of the Terms of Reference separately and is subdivided into sections A.1–C.2.