The SLF…

• has formed part of the WSL (Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research) since 1989, and thereby part of the ETH domain;

• has been responsible for avalanche warnings in Switzerland since 1945, on behalf of the federal government;

• has around 140 employees in total, active in the areas of natural sciences, engineering, technology (electronics, mechanics, informatics) and administration;

• offers learning positions for around 25 doctoral students, 10 students and 4 trainees;

• has a budget of around CHF 17 million (staff and material resources), of which over 50% from Federal funding for the WSL and the rest from project-related third-party funding;

•  records around 16 million page visits per year on their website www.slf.ch;

• gives about 3000 visitors per year insight into the institute by means of tours and exhibitions;

• is mentioned in around 2000 news items per year.