Ever on the cutting edge of progressive ideas, UC Berkeley has won a large grant to develop new biofuels, reports the San Francisco Chronicle.

The $500 million grant from British Petroleum Group will go to creating an internatinal research hub at Berkeley to develop clean energy fuels.

BP is one of the largest oil companies in the world. Last June the company announced it it would fund half a billion dollars over 10 years to conduct research on alternative fuels, and was looking to find an academic institution to host the project.

The center will fund "radical research aimed at probing the emerging secrets of bioscience and applying them to the production of new and cleaner energy, principally fuels for road transport," according to an announcement on the company's Web site.

Cal beat out other universities in the U.S. and England because Gov. Schwarzenegger's recent efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions persuded BP to put the money in California.

"California is yet again leading the world on clean energy," said Adam Mendelsohn, Schwarzenegger's communications director.