New Mexico Small Business Assistance (NMSBA)

What is the NMSBA program?

The New Mexico Small Business Assistance (NMSBA) program allows LANL to use a portion of its annual gross receipts taxes to provide technical advice and assistance to New Mexico small businesses. It enables our researchers to help small companies address challenging problems using Laboratory resources at no cost to the requestor. The program is designed to be accessible and user-friendly with few requirements for participation: companies seeking assistance must be for-profit New Mexico small businesses, and the assistance requested must not be available for a reasonable cost within the private sector.

What should a LANL principal investigator (PI) know about the NMSBA program?

• Funds to cover your time as a PI are unburdened; consequently, an award can cover many billable hours.
• Agreements can be put in place within a few days of a request.
• Projects can start at any time during the calendar year.
• A PI can work on multiple NMSBA projects during the year, but a company can normally only participate in one project per calendar year.
• Two levels of funding exist for single-company projects:
  • LANL services for businesses located in all New Mexico counties except Bernalillo are capped at $20,000 per year
  • LANL services for small businesses located in Bernalillo County are capped at $10,000 per year

What is an NMSBA-funded Leveraged Project?

• These are projects that allow multiple small businesses to join together to request assistance with solving a problem of mutual concern. For example, a group of businesses may apply and qualify for up to $100,000 worth of technical assistance per year from one or both New Mexico national laboratories.
• The competition for Leveraged Projects is held annually in August, with funds available at the beginning of the calendar year.