“BmE has completely moved in now; everyone who needed to relocate has relocated. Now it’s just a matter of furnishing,” says Marjolein Pijnappels, interim communications officer at BmE. “Due to the cyber-attack, there was a slight delay of a few days, but fortunately, classes still started on time. That was the most important thing.” However, she says that quite a bit of work is still being done on the laboratories. “But it was always the plan that those would be completed later due to all the requirements they have to meet.”

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Of the 450 people making the move from ME to Vector, about half are already there. “They moved about two weeks ago,” says Leon Govaert, professor at ME. The other half – including Govaert himself – will follow in mid-April. “We’ll start packing this week, and in two weeks, they’ll begin transferring the lab equipment. So by the end of March, Vector will be mostly operational, but by mid-April, everything and everyone will be truly settled.”
 

Work in progress

Pijnappels is pleased with how things are going so far, but points out that it is still a “work in progress”. “After all, it’s an old building that has been vacant for years, so there are still some things that aren’t working properly. But we expected that to be the case in the beginning,” she explains. “For example, in some places, the heating or blinds don’t fully work yet, or staff members are having problems with the printers. Things like that.”
 

To address these teething problems, a daily stand-up meeting has been held at the building’s main entrance since last week. “A facilities staff member is present during the meetings so that employees can immediately ask all their questions and make comments,” says Pijnappels. “We’ve received a lot of positive feedback on this. People appreciate not having to send an email and being able to speak to someone directly.”
 

A comfortable place

Despite the challenges that come with moving, Pijnappels has mostly heard positive feedback from the new Vector community. According to her, both staff and students are particularly enthusiastic about how spacious the building is. “I’ve heard people say: ‘I hope we’ll get just as much space in Gemini-Zuid’.” Govaert is also optimistic. “I’m looking forward to moving to Vector. It’s indeed very spacious and I really like the lab spaces; I always have a smile on my face when I walk around there.”