Access

News

Nature 447, 625 (7 June 2007) | doi:10.1038/447625a; Published online 6 June 2007

Open Innovation Challenges

naturejobs

Sibling rivalry hits Swiss institutes

Alison Abbott

Top

Establishments clash over funding.

Tempers erupted last week at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich (ETHZ), with faculty members claiming that its board had sneakily siphoned its budget off to Switzerland's other federal institute, the EPFL in Lausanne.Interim president of ETHZ Konrad Osterwalder has complained formally to the Swiss government, saying that the ETH Board — a politically independent body responsible for both universities and for four federal research institutes — "made serious errors in both the form and content of [its] decision on the allocation of the 2008 budget".