Overview

Founded in 1987, the University of North Carolina Injury Prevention Research Center (UNC IPRC) is one of 13 "Centers of Excellence" funded by the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Center's mission is to build the field of injury prevention and control through a combination of interdisciplinary scholarly approaches to research, intervention, and evaluation as well as through the training of the next generation of researchers and practitioners. Now in its 22nd year of operation, the UNC IPRC is proud of it's accomplishments as a mature and highly productive Center and strives to continue affecting change at the state, national, and international level.

Research

IPRC operates as a “center without walls,” facilitating injury collaboration and research on our own campus as well as with researchers and practitioners throughout the US, and increasingly throughout the world. Since 1987, more than 185 discreet research projects have been funded through the Center accounting for more than $100.5 million in grant awards, plus $14.2 million from the CDC through to run Center operations and key research projects.

Faculty and Staff

The Center is comprised of all the investigators working with our many projects. These faculty members, principal investigators, project directors, staff and students, come from more than a dozen academic units on the Chapel Hill campus and investigators on several other UNC campuses. Projects funded and administered through the center have involved more than 85 faculty members for 20 different units at UNC and 35 other institutions.

Students

One facet of our mission at UNC IPRC is to train the next generation of injury researchers and practitioners. To this end, we seek encourage, train, and mentor graduate and professional students by providing opportunities to serve as graduate research assistants to the Core or to specific projects. Some of the student research includes statistical and programming assistance on injury projects, assistance in finding sites for field projects, and a library of reference materials.

Community

The Center has made a commitment to work with injury control practitioners by providing them assistance in program development, evaluation, and workforce development while establishing relationships that also benefit efforts to create new knowledge and finding ways to apply this new knowledge in effective and productive ways.

Resources

The Center houses the Biostatistics and Computer Support Core (BCSC), which provides statistical support and computer support services to center-affiliated staff, faculty, and students. In addition, members of the Biostatistics Core seek to contribute to the advancement of the field of injury research by facilitating methodological and statistical research.

Publications

Between 2000 and 2003, 203 referred articles and 40 books or book chapters have been published with Center funding. Articles have appeared in journals such as American Journal of Preventive Medicine, The International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Injury Control and Safety Prevention, American Journal of Sports Medicine, and Child Maltreatment.