Basel: Novartis could downsize campus
The Novartis pharmaceutical group wants to enable its employees to work permanently in a home office even after the corona pandemic. What will happen to the premises on the large Basel campus has not yet been decided.
How first the Basler Zeitung (BaZ) reported, Novartis is one of the first companies in Switzerland to offer its employees the opportunity to work from home. Everyone should be able to choose autonomously how, where and when they want to work in order to achieve the best result, Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan had said at the presentation of the half-year figures.
According to the report, employees are now to inform their superiors whether they will still be working in the office in the future. The aim is to collect data in this way to clarify how the pharmaceutical company's spectacular campus in Basel can be used in the future.
The 600,000-square-meter campus in Basel was created for 13,000 employees, but so far only about 7,500 people work there. Even before the pandemic, the pharmaceutical giant had announced that it would open up the Basel campus and allow external partners and companies to enter. It wants to improve collaboration with other leading players in research and technology, as well as increase "engagement and interaction with society and the local community," Novartis said. With Narasimhan's announcement, even more space than previously planned is likely to be given to third parties.
As Novartis Chairman of the Board Jörg Reinhardt already stated in January of this year towards SRF said, the Friedrich Miescher Institute (FMI) will move to the Campus in 2023 with 350 employees; Novartis is converting a building for this purpose. The Switzerland Innovation Park Basel Area already moved to the campus this spring. There are also plans to build a visitor center at a cost of CHF 20 million, Reinhardt added. (ah)
