The Berkeley, Calif.-based Energy Biosciences Institute has started its first round of funding, announcing an initial set of 49 cellulosic biofuel research projects that will share a $20 million investment.

The institute is backed by London oil giant BP (NYSE: BP), which last year said it put up $500 million for the research program, partnering with the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (see BP funds biofuel research with $500M).

"We have embarked on a commitment to develop new solutions to global energy needs through the deployment of new technologies based on advances in knowledge about biological processes," said Chris Somerville, a plant biochemist at UC Berkeley and director of the Energy Biosciences Institute.

"The enormous progress in understanding basic biological processes achieved during the past several decades have not previously been brought to bear in the energy sector, so we believe that there may be fundamentally new opportunities to reduce the environmental impacts of energy production and use."

The institute said research is being pursued in four categories related to exploring the opportunities for production of cellulosic biofuels — feedstock development, biomass depolymerization, biofuels production, and the socio-economic impacts of cellulosic biofuels development.

The group said a second initiative, concerned with fossil fuel bioprocessing, is expected to receive funding later this year.

A complete list of the projects in the first round of funding can be found on the institute's website here.