The competition for US$500 million of bioenergy research funding from oil giant BP was fierce and international. BP's aim was to find an institution that could manage a major bioenergy operation and readily collaborate with industry - all in a location that would attract the necessary expertise. In the end, a partnership between the University of California, Berkeley; Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California; and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign won the 2006 competition, beating the University of California, San Diego; Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge; Imperial College London; and the University of Cambridge, UK. That victory would provide the San Francisco Bay area, already known for its biotechnology innovations and computer chips, with a significant boost to its growing reputation as an energy-research hub.
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