The mission of the 'Centre International de Physique des Hautes Energies et d'Astrophysique' is to promote and develop international scientific collaborations in Particle and Astroparticle Physics. Its activities are centred on the research activities of LAPP and LAPTh and involve collaborations with experimentalists and theorists in the international physics community. The Centre aims, in addition, to accomplish an educational role through courses at master and doctoral level and through a post-doctoral fellow programme.

The Centre is hosted at LAPP in Annecy-le-Vieux, about 50 km from CERN. This location is a major asset. CERN is one of the world focal points in particle physics. With the Large Hadron Collider in full operation now, it will certainly remain so for the next decade. The operation of the LHC detectors, the analysis of LHC data and its theoretical interpretation, activities in the search of Dark Matter are among some of the themes of current collaborations in Particle and Astroparticle Physics. The synergy between collider physics, astrophysics and cosmology is most suited in a set-up such as CIPHEA. Preparing for future colliders is another facet of the research activities of the Centre.

The Centre is part of the CNRS laboratories LAPP (experiment) and LAPTh (theory) both of which are associated to the Université de Savoie. It receives support from the Conseil General de la Haute Savoie and in turn contributes significantly to the visibility and innovation skills of the region