The mission of the UNM Center for Injury Prevention Research and Education (CIPRE) is to conduct research and advocacy programs that will result in fewer injuries and deaths from accidental and intentional causes. It provides support, information, and guidance to local advocacy groups, medical professionals, and other individuals working to build safer communities. Through these efforts, CIPRE encourages proactive steps to reduce injury at the local level.

In 1995, the UNM Department of Emergency Medicine consolidated its long-standing injury activities into the Center for Injury Prevention Research and Education (CIPRE). The goals of this consolidation were to accentuate and unify current efforts toward injury prevention, expand research and education activities, and obtain additional federal, state, and private funding to support the efforts of injury research and prevention.