Center for Child Injury Prevention Studies (CChIPS)
Read about our Partnering for Safety: |
Attend the 2012 Advances in Child Injury Prevention Conference, May 16-17: Read more. To register for the conference, contact Meredith Kearney. |
Student and Faculty Research Request for Proposals
- Request for Proposals for Student Research
- Request for Proposals for Faculty Research
- Budget template for Request for Proposals
Proposals should be sent electronically to: kearneym2@email.chop.edu
Treating Children as Children
The Center for Child Injury Prevention Studies (CChIPS) at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) is a National Science Foundation Industry/University Cooperative Research Center (I/UCRC 
) that focuses exclusively on making children and adolescents safer. Through CChIPS, researchers from CHOP and The University of Pennsylvania work side by side with industry members to conduct translational research that is practical to industry. Of the more than 40 I/URC designated centers nationwide, CChIPS is the only one that focuses solely on child injury prevention.
This synergistic collaboration between industry and academia creates an ideal environment for generating ideas for new research projects and to leverage shared expertise and resources.
The CChIPS method applies the science of biomechanical epidemiology to the analysis of crash-related data. A unique and comprehensive approach, biomechanical epidemiology integrates the principles of engineering, behavioral science, and epidemiology into study designs.
CChIPS Mission
The CChIPS mission is to advance the safety of children, youth, and young adults (through age 24) by facilitating scientific inquiry into childhood and young adult injuries and to translate these findings into commercial applications and public education programs for preventing future injuries from occurring.
The fundamental idea behind the work of CChIPS is that children are not small adults. Therefore, their response to trauma and safety needs deserve to be examined and understood as a distinct branch of science. With the increasing complexity of vehicles and restraint systems, the need to ensure the safety of children is greater today than ever.
CChIPS Areas of Research
Currently, all CChIPS research is focused on preventing traffic injuries, the leading cause of injury and death for children, youth, and young adults. The project may expand to include other causes of injury and death in the future.
The scope of CChIPS research projects include:
- injury biomechanics, mechanisms, and tolerance
- technological solutions (design, development, and testing)
- human interaction with and behavior related to safety technology
- safety promotion and education
- the evaluation of safety devices or unsafe behavior modification programs
More information about CChIPS:
Our Research
The Center for Child Injury Prevention Studies
This Center is made possible through a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) which unites CHOP and University of Pennsylvania researchers with R&D leaders in the automotive and insurance industries to translate research findings into tangible innovations in safety technology and public education programs.
Highlighted CChIPS Project - TeleCenter
A collaboration between CChIPS and the Center for Autonomic Computing (CAC) at the University of Florida, TeleCenter is a web-based application created to support multidisciplinary research discussions to advance traffic safety for children, youth, and young adults. TeleCenter was originally developed for the Crash Injury Research and Engineering Network (CIREN), a research affiliation aimed at reducing deaths, disabilities, and costs through the study of serious injuries sustained in car crashes. Crash information regarding the circumstances, vehicles involved, occupants, and injuries can be reviewed digitally within TeleCenter.
Building on the positive feedback from the initial TeleCenter design and deployment, the tool has been further developed to be utilized in the collaborative meetings that take place as part of Child Death Review (CDR) programs, which explore the circumstances surrounding child fatalities and inform preventative measures.
For a more in-depth overview of TeleCenter, please visit http://telecenter.acis.ufl.edu.