NEW YORK — British Petroleum and Ford Motor Company officials announced yesterday a $20-million grant to the University to fund a project called the Carbon Mitigation Initiative.
The grant — which will finance a research project at the Princeton Environmental Institute to develop solutions to the greenhouse problem — is the largest corporate grant the University has received in its more than 250-year history.
BP is pledging $15 million and Ford Motor Company has earmarked $5 million for the project, which will develop and evaluate methods for keeping carbon dioxide emissions — the main cause of global warming — out of the atmosphere.
To that end, PEI researchers will investigate carbon sequestration — the process by which harmful carbon dioxide is stored safely within the Earth.
Research will also focus on producing new non-polluting fuel options.
"The scope of this challenge demands the full participation of universities, corporations and governments," said President Shapiro of carbon-emissions reduction. "That is why I am particularly pleased that BP, Ford and Princeton are forming a collaboration that harnesses our respective strengths."
BP chairman John Browne echoed Shapiro's sentiments from BP's New York headquarters, where the grant was announced yesterday.
"We're funding the best people to tackle tough problems," he said. "The depth and dedication of Princeton people give us great confidence the problem will be solved."
Martin Zimmerman, vice president of government affairs at Ford Motor Company, said he views the move as an investment in the planet's future.
"This partnership is a proactive step towards realizing sustainable transportation running on alternative fuels, preserving our natural resources and ensuring the future of the next generation," he said.
The grant from BP and Ford Motor Company will fund research in three key areas.
First, experiments conducted at the University will determine ways to capture carbon dioxide to reduce significantly the amount released into the atmosphere. Second, researchers will determine where to put the carbon dioxide after it has been trapped. And third, scientists will attempt to understand how carbon dioxide impacts the environment over periods of hundreds of thousands of years.
"It's exciting that this problem that we've all viewed as intractable — for our children and our children's children — could be fixed in our lifetimes," said ecology and evolutionary biology professor Stephen Pacala, co-principal investigator of the Carbon Mitigation Initiative.
PEI's research will involve undergraduate, graduate and post-doctorate students, as well as professors.
The project will involve research conducted in a range of fields including geoscience, environmental science, geology, ecology, atmospheric and oceanic science and chemistry. It will also incorporate work in civil, mechanical and chemical engineering.
BP's portion of the grant is just one of many university research initiatives the company had funded in recent years. BP now gives about $8.5 million per year to U.S. and British universities.
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