BP renews commitment to MITEI with second $25M pledge

26 October 2012

BP is renewing its commitment to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Energy Initiative (MITEI) through an agreement to provide another $25 million for continued energy research over the next five years, bringing the company’s total program funding to $50 million.

Launched in 2006 with BP as the inaugural founding member, the MITEI conducts multidisciplinary research aimed at tackling complex energy challenges such as increasing energy supply, improving efficiency, and addressing environmental impacts of energy consumption. To date, the initiative has sponsored hundreds of energy-related projects ranging from unconventional sources of hydrocarbons to renewables and nuclear fusion.

The MITEI program pairs world-class research teams with the energy companies responsible for commercializing the technology. The program’s structure enables industrial partners to jointly support innovative energy-related academic research while simultaneously advancing research directed at specific business challenges.

Within the program, BP scientists and engineers and MIT researchers collaborate across a range of fields including energy conversion, energy sustainability, materials science, and the modeling of global energy production and use.

MIT faculty and students have proved to be invaluable research partners who embody the Institute’s motto ‘Mens et Manus’ or ‘Mind and Hand’. They bring a powerful combination of scientific innovation and rigor along with an awareness of the practical considerations of large-scale energy provision. Over the last five years, MITEI research has provided BP with a range of practical solutions and trusted scientific data, from state-of-the-art process optimization and modeling tools to ground-breaking analysis of water use in energy production.

—Ellen Williams, BP’s Chief Scientist

BP funds about $100 million in university research, education and recruitment activity at more than 50 US universities annually.