ETH Board wants to merge WSL and Eawag
The ETH Board apparently wants to merge the Research Institutes for Forests, Snow and Landscape (WSL) and for Water Supply, Wastewater Treatment and Water Pollution Control (Eawag), which are under its control, into a world-class institute.
A revolution is currently taking place in secrecy, writes Rebecca Wyss in a Post in the "Blick". The newspaper has an exclusive copy of the minutes of the meeting, according to which the ETH Board wants to reorganize the federal research institutes that are subordinate to it, it continues. This should include "two of the most renowned institutes in Switzerland", WSL and Eawag, will be merged.
The ETH Board justifies the plans by saying that the merger will create "a world-class institute," the communications department of the Board of Directors in the ETH Domain is quoted as saying in the report. In particular, it is planned to "meet the major environmental problems of our time with answers from cutting-edge research," spokesman Gian-Andri Casutt explains there.
According to an anonymous letter leaked to the newspaper, however, the ETH Board primarily wants to save funds with the merger. "With the reorganization can be saved so with the federation places" is quoted from the letter. The author, who according to the newspaper belongs to the inner circle of the institutions concerned, also accuses the ETH Board of having drawn up the plans on its own without consulting the research institutes.
According to the newspaper, the ETH Board wants to tackle further planning together with the institute managements in the coming months. In the end, "politics will have the final say," the report says. Whether WSL and Eawag are actually merged will be determined in the final instance by the newly elected parliament.
