The Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI), largest public-private partnership of its kind in the world, was created in 2007 to address one of the 21st Century’s greatest challenges – finding a technological solution to the problems associated with climate change, global warming, and the rising price and diminishing supplies of carbon-based fossil fuels.

The partner institutions – the University of California, Berkeley; the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; and the international energy company BP, which funds the research – are addressing bioenergy concerns on several fronts. Their 10-year, $500 million quest seeks sustainable, environmentally friendly plant-based fuels to join a balanced portfolio of responsible, renewable energy sources.