BAuA is involved in a variety of national, European and international institutions and bodies. The main focus of the cooperation projects is BAuA's professional strategy and its implementation in the work programme, as well as the orientation towards common European goals and strategies. In addition, there is a number of cooperative priorities in the area of the exercise of sovereign functions, such as, for example, under REACH or the CLP regulation. In these procedures, BAuA is the competent authority in the sense of the EU Directives. It acts as a national and international interface and is in exchange with the European Commission, the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) and with competent authorities of other Member States.

Since the field of health and safety at work is almost completely covered by EU law and the strategic framework of the EU determines also national action and EU programmes beyond research, cooperation on the strategic and political level is gaining importance. For example, BAuA is increasingly assuming responsibility in the Advisory Committee on Safety and Health at Work of the European Commission (ACSH) and on the Administrative Board of the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA).

Major interdisciplinary fields of activity are the European network of national occupational safety and health research institutes (PEROSH) and the cooperation with the EU-OSHA within the framework of the Focal Point network. In addition, the Federal Institute has been designated as a WHO Collaborating Centre (WHO-CC) for many years and is involved in the global network "WHO Global Network of Collaborating Centres in Occupational Health".