Institute for Analytical Philately, Inc. and DPS
David Herendeen, Institute for Analytical Philately
In late 2009, a group of dedicated philatelists and researchers formed the Institute for Analytical Philately, Inc. (IAP). IAP is a nonprofit, educational institution dedicated to applying analytical techniques to philatelic studies which are intended to provide long term and wide ranging benefits to all aspects of philately.
At IAP, we believe there is a large pool of untapped technical expertise and human resources in the philatelic community. We further believe that this expertise can be directed to the betterment of philately through the performance of rigorous, analytical research in many areas that can benefit from new technologies.
Our mission then is simple. To facilitate these benefits, IAP will provide research grants and technical support to qualified philatelists to assist them in performing their research. To support this activity, IAP also provides educational mentoring, training, support and guidance to researchers.
Scientists understand that strong collaboration often leads to major breakthroughs. To foster such collaboration, IAP is developing strategic alliances with major philatelic organizations in the U.S. and abroad. This will allow us to leverage resources by providing our researchers with:
- Access to libraries and archives
- Access to a staff of “experts”
- Access to research equipment
By doing this, we believe that IAP and our alliance partners will be able to:
- Reduce technical risk
- Quickly share and disseminate results
These alliances will allow us to dramatically reduce overhead. As a virtual organization, we can use modern technology to communicate, coordinate and disseminate information.
Because we are a nonprofit corporation, we rely on contributions and memberships from philatelists like you. We must raise funds through contributions such as yours to fund research grants to other philatelists who have proposed specific scientific and technical research projects.
Where does DPS come in? The DPS concept meshes perfectly with our paradigm of rapid technology transfer. One of the strongest requirements IAP places on its researchers is that the results of all grants be published either in the philatelic literature or in technical journals. IAP plans to publish an annual that may contain the results of important research.
As one of the early proponents of the DPS concept, I know how important this medium will become as time progresses. I believe that publication of results in electronic formats, using the capabilities of dpsworkshop.com, is a natural medium for disseminating new knowledge and research results to as may philatelists as possible. IAP looks forward to working in the coming years to help grow the DPS concept. 
