Contract Transition Comes to a Close
The final I’s are being dotted and the T’s crossed as Fermi Forward Discovery Group, LLC (FermiForward) puts the finishing touches on the 90-day contract transition. At the end of this week, FermiForward will wrap up its transition activities ahead of schedule and under budget. With the holiday season right around the corner, FermiForward is eager to begin its journey to manage and operate Fermilab, the world’s premier particle physics research laboratory on January 1, 2025.
As a new chapter begins at the lab, there is much to celebrate, including a seamless contract transition that was executed safely and efficiently and without security or quality issues. The FermiForward team is especially pleased with the 100 percent positive response rate to the set of employee offer letters. We appreciate everyone’s dedication to the important mission of the Laboratory.
Other recent transition highlights include:
The Declaration of Readiness to begin operations was delivered to the Department of Energy (DOE) on Dec. 13.
The Transition Team delivered its final deliverables this week.
The Operations team lead observed an emergency drill that went extremely well.
The FermiForward transition team wants to express its appreciation and gratitude to lab staff, many of whom assisted with transition activities. FermiForward leadership is well aware that the key to Fermilab’s continued success is the dedication and commitment of lab staff. We’ve appreciated your patience and assistance and are excited to begin working with you in the new year so that Fermilab remains a leader in groundbreaking scientific discovery and in ensuring that the world’s best science is enabled by strong and effective operations!
FermiForward Expedites Joint Appointment Agreements
FermiForward recently addressed via the FermiForward website (www.fermi-forward.org) questions from incumbent employees who have joint appointments with the University of Chicago and other scientific organizations and universities. Early in the transition process, employees expressed concern that existing appointments would end with the contract transition, causing a gap that could seriously disrupt work.
To ensure no interruption to Fermilab’s mission, FermiForward engaged the DOE early in the transition process to ensure re-assignment of appointments. DOE has approved reassigning all existing and pending appointments to FermiForward with new end dates.
Strong Safety to Support Strong Science
One of FermiForward’s top priorities will be to ensure a strong foundation of safety for the Fermilab scientific mission. FermiForward will build on the improvements in environment, safety and health (ES&H) that have occurred over the past year by instituting additional enhancements so that all aspects of Fermilab operations can be conducted safely and in an environment built upon a strong safety culture.
One such enhancement is a new program called “SAFE,” which recognizes the vital importance of front-line supervisors and managers to drive a safe work culture. SAFE is an experiential learning program that helps develop fundamental skills for managing safety challenges, communication, and team dynamics and provides opportunities to practice responding to real-life scenarios to ensure safe and effective management of lab activities. The technique that underpins this program has been successfully demonstrated at several other DOE Office of Science laboratories.
FermiForward will also incorporate proven best practices guided by team members Amentum and Longenecker & Associates. They will augment the work performed by the Fermilab ESH team, assisting in mentoring ES&H leadership and providing full-time experienced professionals to support projects and programs and drive continuous improvement. The SAFE program will serve as a cultural and operational change agent focused on preventing significant safety-related incidents through strong engagement, mentoring, training, and partnership with Fermilab staff.
New Q&A Available on FermiForward Website
If you haven't visited the FermiForward website recently, please do so. Updated questions-and-answers are now available. The FermiForward website can be found at www.fermi-forward.org.