Expanded Swiss research campus to concentrate on sustainable energy

The new research campus will comprise 60 labs and offices focusing on sustainable energy research. Illustration: SAM Architects / Filippo Bolognese Images

Two of Switzerland’s leading federal science and technology research institutes have started construction work on the major expansion of their campus near Zurich.

Bulldozers are due to start work this month at the research campus of the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa) and the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag) at Dübendorf, near Zurich, it was announcedExternal link on Thursday.

The new campus, which is due to be completed by 2024, will comprise two new buildings for 60 laboratories and offices. The whole project has been budgeted at CHF94.5 million ($104 million).

“In the new laboratory building, we will primarily locate activities in the field of analytical and synthetic chemistry for applications in sustainable energy research,” Urs Leemann, a member of Empa’s board of directors, told SWI swissinfo.ch.

“Our primary goal is to use our activities to research sustainable solutions for the climate and CO2 problem and to make them available to industry.”

An artist’s illustration of the main entrance to the new Empa and Eawag joint research campus. Illustration: SAM Architects / Filippo Bolognese Images

Around 1,300 people currently work at Dübendorf for Empa (850 staff) and Eawag (450), alongside employees from several start-ups.

Empa and Eawag belong to Switzerland’s federal ETH Domain, together with the two Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology in Zurich (ETH Zurich) and Lausanne (EPFL), the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) and the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL).