About this photo:
FIPR Institute hosts and participates in workshops and conferences to facilitate the exchange and understanding of technical information.

Scientific research is a cumulative process that requires the exchange of information. Knowledge is exchanged in the written word through peer-reviewed literature. It is also exchanged through gatherings such as conferences and workshops where ideas and data can be shared firsthand. The exchange ensures that those doing research have access to what is already known and a way to share what they find out so others can build upon it.

As a research institute, FIPR Institute understands the essential nature of this exchange of information. To ensure that exchange takes place, FIPR Institute regularly organizes, facilitates and/or hosts conferences, workshops and meetings. Institute research directors and principal investigators regularly present their findings at regional, national and international meetings. FIPR Institute also publishes these findings and disseminates them to the scientific and technical community. The FIPR Institute Library, which services the technical community and general public, was established when the Institute was founded to collect and share phosphate-related research and information.

One of the first exchanges FIPR made possible was an international conversation about phosphogypsum. FIPR hosted a series of International Conferences on the technical aspects of phosphogypsum production, its environmental impacts and potential uses. These meetings were held before the USEPA banned the use of phosphogypsum because of its low level of radioactivity. After the ban, FIPR organized a forum for lawmakers, technical experts, regulators and the public to discuss and debate the basis of the ban. FIPR Institute is also routinely approached to provide technical expertise in local, national and international conversations about phosphogypsum use.

FIPR Institute has also hosted many conferences, workshops and meetings on reclamation issues and technologies. Most recently FIPR Institute has facilitated meetings between researchers, industry members, regulators and community members to discuss what is known about clay settling areas and how they can be used. These discussions came out of public concern about the number of acres mining leaves behind as clay settling areas, which have limited load-bearing capability.

International discussions of beneficiation practices and technologies have also been made possible by FIPR Institute, which has hosted three international conferences in conjunction with the Engineering Foundation. The impetus for launching this conference series came when a new reference book on flotation was reviewed and it was discovered that there were only a few pages on phosphate, a fact that illustrated how little organized technical information is available on the phosphate industry.

In this same vein, the Regional Phosphate Conference, which FIPR helped found nearly 20 years ago and continues to help organize, is the only one that includes information on all aspects of the mining and processing industries.

FIPR Institute also is involved in broadening health physics conversations about natural radioactivity in Florida and specifically as it relates to the phosphate industry.