Through September 1, 2010, Northern New Mexico Connect is accepting idea statements for the LANS Venture Acceleration Fund (VAF). VAF invests in creating and growing Northern New Mexico businesses that have an association with LANL technology or expertise. It invests up to $100,000 in businesses that use technology for commercial applications with market demand. Use of VAF awards includes proof of concept, prototyping, securing initial customers and generating additional funding.

In 2009, two promising companies received VAF awards totaling $100,000 each:

Simtable, a company based at the Santa Fe Complex, is revolutionizing firefighter training. In the past, firefighters modeled their response to a fire by moving matchbox cars and pieces of yard around a tabletop filled with sand, using the sand to represent the landscape. Simtable’s technology projects Google Earth and GIS data onto the sand surface, allowing interactive modeling between the sand and the computer. For example, if a fire is simulated in the sand, the model can show where it is most likely to spread.

Simtable is using its VAF award to improve the user interface for its hardware and software, market and advertise the product, and seed firefighting academies with its hardware and software, which are customized for the curriculum. The company was recently honored at the New Mexico Business Weekly’s Small Business Heavyweights Breakfast, among an elite group of New Mexico companies.

Southwest Biofuels is a veteran-owned business and one of the only biodiesel manufacturers in New Mexico. Owners Eddie and Nathan Gonzales, father and son, built the company by transforming their family trucking business into a green industry. Southwest Biofuels plans to help the State of New Mexico and City of Albuquerque meet new requirements for using biodiesel in fleet vehicles through the sale of its product.

Southwest Biofuels used its VAF award to purchase new equipment and retool its Albuquerque production plant for increased capacity. Impressively, all engineering and installation was completed by Nathan Gonzales, who was trained as a fuel analyst in the US Army. In August 2010, the plant will open to the public, and Southwest Biofuels will begin distributing fuel to customers across the state and the southwest region.

All companies interested in submitting an idea statement for VAF are strongly encouraged to attend a special Market Intelligence Training Workshop on August 12, 2010. This session will discuss how to craft a clean, concise and compelling idea statement. Successful idea statements will be invited to submit a full proposal to VAF in the fall of 2010. For more information, contact Belinda Padilla, LANS Venture Acceleration Fund Program Manager at (505) 667-9896 or bee@lanl.gov.