Guidelines for Awarding Seed Money Grants from New Mexico WERC Allocation

Following are guidelines for awarding seed funding from the state of New Mexico’s line item allocation to WERC. The total funds available will not exceed the sum of $125,000. These guidelines were reviewed by WERC administrators. The following sections detail the policy, criteria and procedures that will be used as guidelines.

For more information, contact:
Roseann Thompson, Project Manager
(575) 646-7854

Policy

A portion of the state allocation to WERC will be awarded as “seed” or “matching funds” to qualified technology development projects. These funds will be awarded only after a technical and administrative review of their intended use.

Criteria

The guideline criteria for the reviews will focus on the following:

1. Awards will be made only to employees of WERC educational institutions (New Mexico State University, University of New Mexico, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology and Diné College).
2. Projects should show clear documentation of the potential to develop meaningful collaboration with industry, the national laboratories or between other institutions.
3. The award will be used with existing funds from other sources to expand the scope of the existing project, or will be used to attract funding from other sources.
4. The project should have good potential to generate additional funds and a plan detailing how this is accomplished.
5. Application oriented projects will be given preference. Exploratory or basic research projects will be considered if they are accompanied by a plan showing how the research will lead to application.
6. The project must address a real need (current or future) of industry, government (i.e. DOE or the nation).
7. The probability of success and the payback to WERC must be reasonable. This must be explained as a part of the proposal.
8. Priority will be given to support of students rather than purchase of equipment or other types of services.
9. Awards will be for no more than $10,000 unless compelling reasons are given for larger amounts. Indirect costs are not allowed.
10. Proposals must include a detailed list of tasks, milestones, expected accomplishments and a line-item budget

Procedures

The following procedures will be followed for submittal and review of award applications from individuals or teams:

1. The individual or team will submit a short (less than 5 pages) request that should contain: a)  an abstract of the project,
   b) a discussion of the requested funding with respect to the review criteria,
   c) names of the principle investigator(s),
   d) a schedule showing completion of the project, and
   e) a plan detailing cost share and application.
2. Particular attention should be paid to:
   a) additional generation of funds, and
   b) further pursuit of application.
   
   A single electronic PDF or Microsoft Word file will be submitted to:
   
   Abbas Ghassemi, Executive Director
   WERC/NMSU
   PO Box 30001, MSC WERC
   Las Cruces, New Mexico 88003-8001
   aghassem@nmsu.edu  and rethomps@nmsu.edu
   
   A review team comprised of representatives from WERC member institutions, industrial affiliates and WERC deployment/commercialization team will review the request and submit it along with their recommendation on the funding to Abbas Ghassemi.
    
3. Successful requestors will provide a final report on the supported project and use of the seed money no later than one quarter after the completion date of the project. Interim information may be requested by WERC administration for reporting purposes.

Additional Information

All requests will be considered for funding based on funds availability. The funded projects will be considered and a first come/first funded basis.

1. Requests may be submitted at any time; the review and subsequent award will take place in approximately two months.
2. The duration of any award cannot extend beyond June 30 of any year as it is connected to the state of New Mexico’s fiscal calendar.
3. Approximately 9 to 12 awards are anticipated to be made each fiscal year.