With a 5-year grant and facilitation from the National Science Foundation (NSF), Children's Hospital has established a unique NSF Industry/University Cooperative Research Center, The Center for Child Injury Prevention Studies (CChIPS). CChIPS is the only NSF center devoted to injury prevention.

The center unites Children's Hospital and Penn researchers with automotive and insurance industry members to translate research findings into tangible innovations in safety technology and public education programs. Annually, an NSF grant of $70,000 is supplemented by contributions of $50,000 from each industry member to support the shared CChIPS research agenda. Currently, there are six founding industry members: Britax Child Safety, Inc., Nissan North America, Inc., State Farm Insurance Companies, Takata Corporation, Toyota Motor North America, Inc., and Volkswagen of America, Inc., with additional industry memberships welcome. With Children's Hospital contributing administrative costs, the entire annual CChIPS budget goes toward research that promises to lead to safety innovation for children.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), motor vehicle crashes remain the leading cause of death for people aged 4 to 33 years, exceeding most other causes combined. Each year in the United States, more than 1.5 million children under age 16 are occupants in motor vehicle crashes, resulting in more than 1,700 fatalities and 240,000 non-fatal injuries. Furthermore, crashes occur disproportionately among new young adult drivers, with one in four crash fatalities in the United States involving 16- to 24-year-olds. Drivers aged 16 and 17 years, who have been licensed for six months or less
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Contact: Dana Mortensen
Mortensen@email.chop.edu
267-426-6092
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
25-Oct-2005