[1] It is a body governed by public law and operates under the administrative sector of the Finnish Ministry of Social Affairs and Health.
The group is part of the worldwide not-for-profit research organisation Cochrane and moved to the University Medical Center in Amsterdam the Netherlands.
FIOH’s predecessor was the department of occupational diseases of the Helsinki General Hospital, which was based on the initiative of the National Board of Health and founded on 4.4.1945.
This private foundation in turn established the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, which began operations on 1.1.1950, financially supported and aided by the state.
FIOH was nationalized in a contract between the State and the Foundation and became an independent body governed by public law operating under the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health on 1.7.1978.