The Institute was founded in 1945, and in 1978 it was nationalised
under the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health. The Institute acts as a specialist
institute of the WHO and ILO. The Institute contributes to developing work life with its
activities in research, training, adult education and dissemination of information.
Size of organisation, in terms of the total number of personnel (use full-time
equivalents)
Evidence of experience of the organisation in the field covered by
the project and experience in international co-operation
The central points of the current strategy of the Institute are:
improvement of work-related health, well-being and quality of life by making the work
environment, work methods and work organisations better so that they promote work ability,
job satisfaction and gender equality. The Institute strives to achieve these objectives by
research, expert services, training and adult education.
International collaboration is based to a great extent on bilateral
agreements with foreign research institutes or governments. Bilateral collaboration is
carried out between the Institute and the research institutes in Estonia, France, Germany,
Hungary, Italy, Poland, Russia, as well as the US National Institute (NIOSH). There is
also much collaboration within the European Union and the Nordic countries.
The bilateral collaboration with Estonia and the neighbouring regions
of Russia has received special emphasis. Several projects are carried out in these
countries. A collaborative project with Nordic and Baltic countries, concerning the
telemetric information network in the countries around the Baltic Sea, was initiated in
1996 with the Finnish Institute as a focal point.
In August 1997 the Institute organised a Northern-Baltic-Karelian
Symposium, in Lappeenranta, Finland. Altogether 112 experts attended the meeting, mainly
from the Nordic countries, the Baltic countries and Russia. The summaries of the 48 oral
presentations were published in a book of abstracts in 1998.
The income from the Institute activities amount to FIM 92.7 million.
FIM 42.9 million of the income come from services, 24.2 million from research, 13.9
million from training and education, and 8.3 million from publications and information
services. The highest growth was in the incomes from training and adult education. Public
funds accounted for 65% of all Institute expenditures in 1997.
International projects