Institute Structure

The Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention features five cores and external advisory committees that each have distinct objectives, but together, are working to reduce firearm injuries nationwide.

Overview

Launched as a presidential initiative in 2019 and an Institute in 2021, the Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention engages the breadth of expertise across the University of Michigan, with input from nonacademic stakeholders, to generate knowledge and advance solutions that will decrease firearm injury across the United States — all while respecting the rights of responsible, law-abiding firearm owners.

The Institute researches all aspects of firearm injury prevention, and from a wide array of disciplines (i.e., public health, criminology, medicine, sociology, psychology, social work, nursing, engineering, economics, public policy, education, etc.), focus areas (i.e., suicide, youth violence, community violence, unintentional injury, intimate partner violence, school shootings, mass shootings, technology and firearms, police violence), along the translational research spectrum (i.e., epidemiology, risk and protective factors, primary prevention, secondary & tertiary prevention, policy, implementation), and focused at any level of the socio-ecological model (individual, family, community, or policy), and we are particularly interested in research addressing existing inequalities, disparities, and inequities related to firearm injury.

To accomplish this work, the Institute is organized around five cores (Research & Scholarship, Education & Training, Policy, Data & Methods, and Community Engagement), and has five advisory committees to provide strategic vision and input.

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Cores

The Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention features five cores that each have distinct objectives, but together, they are working to reduce firearm injuries nationwide.

Research and Scholarship Core

Fosters scholarly collaboration across disciplines, seeds innovative projects focused on research, scholarship and creative practice, and prepares teams for external funding opportunities to support future firearm injury prevention research. Work led by this core ranges from improving epidemiological data and strengthening social science-informed policy analysis to identifying design applications and developing new safety technologies.

Education and Training Core

Educates and trains a diverse, next generation of faculty and students with opportunities that include new firearm-related courses revolving around epidemiology, disparities, interventions and policy analysis.

Community Engagement Core

Conduit to external partners, including community groups, firearm-related organizations and policy audiences. Work led by this core fosters the bidirectional transfer of firearm injury prevention research and scholarship between faculty and stakeholders, community members and injury prevention practitioners through various channels.

 

Data and Methods Core

Conducts innovative methodological quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods research. Work led by this core addresses big data challenges, develops innovative technological solutions and assists with data linkages.

Policy Core

Conducts state-of-the-art policy evaluations on firearm related outcomes. Work led by this core addresses data collection and methodology challenges with policy evaluation, and develops innovative research designs to measure firearm-related outcomes and implementation measures.

Advisory Committees

The Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention features external advisory committees that each have distinct objectives, but together are working to reduce firearm injuries nationwide.

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Community Advisory

Serves as a source of community stakeholders’ expertise and insight to inform Institute priorities and provide feedback.

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Scientific Advisory

Provides counsel to guide the Institute’s research focus, ensure appropriate allocation of resources, and evaluate the Institute’s progress.

By developing a stronger infrastructure for research, educational activities and community outreach around firearm injury prevention, U-M can address the complexity of this national health threat by integrating the perspectives of multiple disciplines to ultimately find solutions.