CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (AP) – After energy giant BP started looking last summer for a school to conduct alternative-fuels research, University of Illinois and University of California officials decided to pitch a proposal together.

That partnership paid off when the universities learned last week that the British company had chosen them for the $500 million project, University of Illinois Chancellor Richard Herman said Thursday.

The schools, Illinois and California Govs. Rod Blagojevich and Arnold Schwarzenegger and BP executives were expected to announce the research partnership at news conferences in California and Illinois later Thursday.

The University of Illinois can expect to see up to $100 million of the research money, Herman said. It has committed 12,000 square feet of space and expects the work to occupy dozens of faculty, staff and students over the next decade.

“It’s obviously going to depend heavily on the projects that get done,” Herman said.

He also anticipates the new energy research partnership will be a strong recruiting tool for both faculty and top students.

Illinois will focus on growing plants that can be used to produce alternative fuels, Herman said. The University of Illinois is already doing related work at its Institute for Genomic Biology in Champaign-Urbana.

“There’s a history of doing big science,” Herman said, noting the school’s involvement in the creation of supercomputing and cyber infrastructure.

Cal had its own impressive history to sell, he added. And the state of California sweetened the pot for BP with $40 million in state bonds, and personal lobbying by Schwarzenegger, the Contra Cost Times reported.

The two schools often compete against each other for research money, faculty and students. Herman said, but decided about three months ago to work together.

Once they did, researchers at the two schools quickly put together a presentation, then Herman and others flew to London to pitch it to BP, he said. The Illinois-California bid was chosen over competing proposals from MIT, Cambridge University and others.

The University of Illinois has begun talking to companies that will be part of or benefit from the research conducted in the state, Herman added, declining to name them.

Decatur-based Archer Daniels Midland is the country’s leading producer of ethanol, a fuel additive usually made of corn but that also be derived from other crops.