A statewide mission powered by a small team
The New Mexico Bioscience Authority (NMBSA) was established in 2017, after a state-commissioned study known as the GrowBio report identified a growing bioscience industry with little infrastructure behind it. New Mexico's legislature created the (NMBSA) as the state's first public-private partnership, bringing government, research institutions, and private industry into one organization built around a single job: connecting anyone within the state’s bioscience sector, from researchers and state agencies to startups and investors, to the people and resources that can move that work forward.
The scope of that job is large relative to the team behind it. New Mexico is one of the largest states by land area and one of the least populous, home to three national laboratories, three research universities, and a bioscience community spread across cities, rural counties, and tribal lands. The NMBSA’s team consists of five people, including staff shared with The University of New Mexico's Vice President for Research office and its Health Sciences Center. Ahead of its 10th anniversary in 2027, that small group partnered with EcoMap to give its connector role something to run on beyond memory and relationships.
A familiar bind for a team built to connect a whole state
Prior to implementing the EcoMap platform, the NMBSA’s understanding of the state's bioscience ecosystem was built primarily through the expertise of its Board of Directors—whose members represent communities across New Mexico—and through the relationships and direct engagement cultivated by its staff. While these connections provided valuable insights, they offered only a partial view of the state's rapidly evolving bioscience landscape. Irene Gray, who joined the Authority's staff in October, describes an organization that relied heavily on institutional knowledge and personal relationships to stay connected with New Mexico's bioscience community.
"It was difficult," Gray says. "A lot of that knowledge lived in our executive director's head or on spreadsheets, and a great deal of time was spent networking to make sure companies and organizations across the state knew we were here and understood the resources we could provide." That same hands-on approach extended to the Authority's digital presence. Gray says. "It really reflects how much of the NMBSA’s growth has been driven by a small team committed to supporting New Mexico's bioscience ecosystem."
It is a familiar bind for small state agencies and authorities built around coordination. The mission is to connect people across an entire state, but the information that makes those connections possible tends to live in individuals’ heads, a shared drive, or a spreadsheet that only stays current if someone has time to update it. New Mexico's added challenge is geography. Outside of Albuquerque, Santa Fe, and Las Cruces, where many of the state's research universities, national laboratories, and bioscience organizations are concentrated, bioscience companies and entrepreneurs are dispersed across vast rural regions, often with no easy way to identify others working in similar fields or locate the resources they need to grow.
Turning years of institutional knowledge into a living directory
Using the EcoMap Discover platform, the NMBSA developed and integrated the NM Bioscience Connect ecomap into its website, creating the state's first centralized, searchable directory of New Mexico's bioscience ecosystem. The platform enables entrepreneurs, researchers, investors, service providers, and community organizations to identify companies, institutions, and resources across the state through a single online portal. In addition to a comprehensive directory of bioscience companies, the portal provides access to job and internship opportunities, industry events, funding opportunities, startup support services, and other tools designed to strengthen connections across New Mexico's bioscience community. As a living resource, the ecomap is continually updated and expanded to reflect the growth and evolution of the state's bioscience sector.
The map has become the NMBSA’s default answer whenever someone asks where to start. It is the standing link in Gray’s monthly newsletter, with a second link pointing readers to the ecomap’s events section. At the BIO International Convention in June, an event that draws roughly 25,000 attendees, Gray used it to show in-state researchers and companies what already exists in New Mexico, and to give companies from other states a concrete look at what they’d be joining if they moved in. Gray describes the shift in simple terms.
"It was such a breakthrough," she says. "[We] could easily point people to one resource when they had questions."
Closing the distance
Gray says one of the most valuable aspects of the partnership is its ability to improve access to information across New Mexico's diverse bioscience ecosystem. While the urban communities are home to many of the state's research institutions and established bioscience organizations, companies and entrepreneurs in other parts of the state have historically had fewer opportunities to identify potential collaborators and available resources.
By making organizations and support resources easier to discover through a publicly accessible, searchable platform, the NM Bioscience Connect ecomap helps increase the visibility of bioscience activity regardless of geographic location. Its value is already extending beyond the NMBSA's own efforts. For example, a community leader in Farmington working to strengthen bioscience collaboration across the Four Corners region and the Navajo Nation used the New Mexico ecomap as a starting point for identifying organizations and building a network of regional contacts.
Gray also points to a simpler, more personal version of the same idea. After meeting someone doing business consulting at an event, she added her to the map on the spot.
"I cannot tell you enough how much that means," Gray says, "in a state where we’re so spread out and it’s difficult to make those connections."
For a five-person team responsible for an entire state, the value of the partnership is less about any single feature and more about what it lets a small staff cover. The NMBSA didn't need another tool to manage internally. It needed a resource that works the same whether someone is searching from Albuquerque or from a town three hours away, and that keeps working as new companies, funders, and connections get added. That's the role EcoMap plays for the NMBSA. It is the connective infrastructure behind a mission that was always statewide, now built to reach the whole state.
Heading into a 10-year milestone with a map to show for it
The New Mexico Bioscience Authority was established by the state Legislature in 2017 and will mark its 10th anniversary in 2027. Gray views the milestone as an opportunity to expand public awareness of New Mexico's growing bioscience sector by highlighting the companies, entrepreneurs, researchers, and communities that are contributing to its success. She also sees it as a chance to provide state leaders with a more comprehensive, data-informed understanding of the industry's strengths, assets, and opportunities.
As those conversations continue, the NMBSA is evaluating EcoMap's Economic Intelligence Monitor, a platform designed to help states analyze and benchmark economic indicators such as industry growth, workforce trends, and tax competitiveness. The tool could complement the NM Bioscience Connect ecomap by providing additional data to inform strategic planning, economic development, and policy discussions.
The Authority is also looking further ahead. A feasibility study now underway is exploring new lab and incubator space to help New Mexico bioscience startups grow instead of leaving the state to commercialize, and the NMBSA expects to use its own ecomap as a running database of potential tenants and funders once that space gets built. Both point toward the same goal the NMBSA started with in 2017: giving New Mexico's bioscience companies an easier path to grow in the state instead of leaving it.
Learn more about the New Mexico Bioscience Authority