The Scientific Institute of Public Health (IPH) provides scientific research to support health policy as well as expertise and public service in the field of public health.  A public service of the federal government, IPH has more than 500 staff, one third of whom are scientific personnel.

The main activities of the IPH include surveillance of communicable and non-communicable diseases; verification of federal product norms (e.g. food, pharmaceuticals, vaccines); risk assessment (e.g. chemical products, genetically modified organisms); environment and health; and management of biological resources (collections of strains of microorganisms).