New facility management structure for the new home of D-BSSE

Led by Niels Bürckert, the current Facility of Infrastructure Services (FIS) team takes care of the management (and maintenance) of as diverse facilities as lab and office spaces, the convention rooms as well as leisure & snack corners but also highly specialised scientific facilities such as the cleanroom or the genomic sequencing lab, or even the work shop. The autoclaving and dishwashing facility dealing with the preparation of lab materials for re-use are also run under sole responsibility of FIS. Another major activity set up and maintained by the FIS team is the purchase, distribution and disposal of chemicals and lab materials, a service offered by the ‘D-BSSE Shop’. Linked to this service are also postage and mailing.

D-BSSE members rarely take notice of these many operational activities in the background. A smart distribution system of emails sent to ‘’ quickly informs the person in charge of an issue and provides a solution - in no time.

As the new D-BSSE building is being finalised, new services are being set up, requiring new skilled staff members and a reorganisation of the existing team. The Good Manufacturing Practice facility, a new scientific facility, will be established in addition to the existing four facilities. A public Bistro and roof-top restaurant linked to the new Science Lounge will be hosted in the building, and a reception will welcome and advise guests and public visitors entering the BSS.

As of April 2021, building operations for the new campus have been transferred to ETH’s department for facility services (Abteilung Betrieb), which takes care of the building functionality in all its facets. This includes the operational management of the property and its facilities in line with ETH’s corporate real-estate strategy as well as the maintenance of technical infrastructure. Members of facility services also work in the new Info and Service Center, which welcomes visitors and serves as focal point for staff and their inquiries. As some parts of the building have restricted access, the reception team also oversees and maintains the complex access and locking system of the building. The new head of this team is Luigi Serravalle, BSS Building Area Manager, who moved his workstation from Zurich to Basel in February this year.
All services supporting the science directly or indirectly remain with the current FIS team led by Niels Bürckert. These include the D-BSSE Shop, the autoclaving and dish washing facility, postal services, poster plotting service, workshop, lab safety and safety trainings, the new centralised facility of liquid-nitrogen sample storage and its backup system, the organisation of delivery and distribution of parking lots, the management of the logistic tunnel linking up BSS with its adjacent neighbours, the Biozentrum of the University of Basel and the University Children’s Hospital Basel.

In particular, the D-BSSE Shop is a growing, continuously evolving service, responsible for the contracting with highly specialised manufacturers and suppliers worldwide, purchase and distribution of chemicals and goods. Along with the advances in research, the demand of experimentalists and engineers at D-BSSE changes and so does the Shop’s service portfolio.

The organisational changes guarantee smooth operations supporting all activities related to research, teaching and tech transfer in our new home. Irrespective of the complexity of its organisation and the new roles and responsibilities in the FIS team in relation to the new ETH team of building managers, the only thing users need to know and do even in the BSS building, is: to continue using the ‘Helpdesk’ service and the person in charge of an issue provides a solution - in no time.