BP will fund an Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI) with a mandate to "perform ground-breaking research aimed at the production of new and cleaner energy" with an initial focus on biofuels for cars and trucks.

EBI research will be conducted at the University of California, Berkeley and its affiliated Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and at the University of Illinois.

BP said as many as 50 of its employees will be involved in EBI research.

The US institutions were selected from a worldwide pool of of applicants, according to BP.

"The proposal from UC Berkeley and its partners was selected in large part because these institutions have excellent track records of delivering 'Big Science,'" said BP group chief executive John Browne.

Browne described big science as "large and complex developments predicated on both scientific breakthroughs and engineering applications that can be deployed in the real world."

The institute will merge academia and the private sector to create "the discipline of Energy Biosciences," Browne said.

LBNL deputy director Graham Fleming stressed that the institute "is not going to have any vested interest in a particular outcome" because of funding by one of the world's largest petroleum companies.

"We are going to try to draw on the best science and information to come up with an unbiased analysis of where the opportunities are, what the problems are, and then what the solutions to those problems are," Fleming said.

BP contends it is "already a top player" in the global biofuels market with a 10 percent stake.

BP reported that in 2006 it blended 718 million gallons (2,717,925 kiloliters) of ethanol with gasoline, a 25 percent increase from the previous year.

EBI is the first public-private research lab dedicated to renewable fuels and clean energy, according to California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's office.

"I can't tell you how excited I am," Schwarzenegger said of the grant.

"This is a perfect complement to our new low-carbon fuel standard which will more than triple alternative fuel demand in California by 2020. With research facilities like (EBI), California will continue to be the leader in the Cleantech industry."

Schwarzenegger met with BP executives "on many occasions" in recent months to discuss the EBI grant, according to his office.

The governor included 40 million dollars in funding for the institute in the state's budget for 2007 to 2008, a move that strongly influenced BP's grant decision, Schwarzenegger's representatives said in a release.

In September of last year, Schwarzenegger signed a landmark bill to cap greenhouse gas emissions in California.

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