UC Berkeley, BP Finally Sign Contract For Research Project

UC Berkeley, BP Finally Sign Contract For Research Project
Charles Burress, Chronicle Staff Writer

(11-14) 13:12 PST BERKELEY -- The long-delayed contract for the nation's biggest university-industry energy research project - a $500 million pact between oil giant BP and an academic partnership headed by UC Berkeley - has finally been signed, with at least one significant change.

The 10-year contract, unveiled by UC Berkeley officials Wednesday, establishes an Energy Biosciences Institute to discover better biofuels and other alternative energy breakthroughs. But it configures a different governing board than was presented after the plan was first announced in February.

The main oversight body, the governance board, will be have eight voting members with half coming from BP. The plan proposed by UC and presented to the public in the past called for five board members, with two from BP and three from the three academic partners: UC Berkeley, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of Illinois. The new configuration gives the academic partners the same number of seats as BP.

The deal divides the research into two categories: an open component by the academic scientists that can be published in academic journals and a confidential, proprietary component by BP researchers stationed at the Berkeley and Illinois campuses. The contract specifies that at least $35 million of the annual $50 million funding be devoted to the open research.

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Online Resources
The BP-UC contract:
www.energybiosciencesinstitute.org/images/stories/pressroom/FINAL_Execution_11-9.pdf

A UC Berkeley FAQ on the Energy Biosciences Institute:
www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2007/11/14_ebi-faq.shtml

The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights news release:
www.consumerwatchdog.org/energy/pr/?postId=8809

E-mail Charles Burress at cburress@sfchronicle.com