NM FAST is hosting a free hybrid workshop designed to help New Mexico-based entrepreneurs and researchers select the right federal agency for their Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer proposals. The session, "Navigating Federal Agencies," will be held on Wednesday, October 21, from 9 to 11 a.m. MDT at Q Station, 3225 Central Ave. NE, Albuquerque, with a virtual option available via Zoom for participants joining from anywhere in the state.
Led by John Waller, program manager of NM FAST, the session will walk participants through five federal agencies that fund SBIR and STTR: the Department of Defense, National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, Department of Energy, and NASA. Each agency has distinct funding priorities, review cycles and application timelines. Choosing the wrong agency is one of the most costly mistakes first-time applicants make. Participants will learn what each agency funds, how their review processes differ and how to align their technology with agency priorities so they can target the right one before beginning to write.
"New Mexico has a deep base of research and a growing pipeline of founders ready to translate that work into companies that can compete for federal R&D dollars," said Carlos Murguia, director of the Technology and Innovation Gateway at Arrowhead Center. "This workshop gives founders in Las Cruces, Albuquerque, Los Alamos and rural communities across the state a critical skill: knowing which agency is the right fit for their work before they invest weeks in a proposal. That kind of clarity early on can save months and dramatically increase their chances of success."
NM FAST is administered by Arrowhead Center at New Mexico State University and operates statewide, serving founders in Las Cruces, Albuquerque, Los Alamos, and rural communities across New Mexico. Over more than a decade of programming, NM FAST has supported more than 470 New Mexico startups and helped companies secure nearly $28 million in federal SBIR awards. Targeted outreach is directed to rural, women, veteran, and minority entrepreneurs.
The workshop is sponsored by the New Mexico Economic Development Department's Technology and Innovation Office through the New Mexico Entrepreneurship Programmatic Support Grant, which supports continued statewide programming for SBIR/STTR-eligible companies in the four priority sectors: advanced computing, bioscience, advanced energy and aerospace.
Interested participants can register at https://luma.com/b8prnse4.
The full article can be seen at https://newsroom.nmsu.edu/news/nm-fast-to-host-workshop-on-choosing-the-right-federal-agency-for-sbir-sttr-funding/s/d4085d6f-193c-4918-8762-792b7c7e0ba9
