In 1997, Södertörn University initiated the formation of a network of researchers in the greater Stockholm area interested in issues of social change and health in Eastern Europe. This network is named SCOHOST, the Stockholm Centre on Health of Societies in Transition. Its main purpose is to monitor and analyse the social, demographic and health developments in Central and Eastern Europe, with particular focus on Russia and the countries of the Baltic Sea region.

Since its beginning, the core group has to a large extent been financed by the The Swedish Foundation for Baltic and East European Studies through grants to different research projects. Over the years, the group's members have also been successful in obtaining individual research grants from other funding institutions in Sweden and in the European Union. Currently, the main source of funding for the group comes from the "Moa" grant intended for high-quality multi-disciplinary research environments at Södertörn University. 

SCOHOST works together with a number of European partners, such as ECOHOST in London, the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Rostock, the Institute of Social and Economic Studies of Population in Moscow, and others.