MIT Energy Initiative announces Ford as its first "Sustaining Member"...

The MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI) announced this week that it has signed its second large corporate supporter/sponsor, the Ford Motor Company.

Ford is the first company to sign on as a "Sustaining Member" of MITEI, committing $1M/year for 5 years to the Initiative. (As blogged here previously, BP has signed on as the first "Founding Member" of MITEI - indicating a commitment of $5M/year for 5 years).

For reference, the levels/details of MITEI sponsorship can be found here:

- Founding Members: $5M/year for 5 years
- Sustaining Members: $1M/year for 5 years
- Associate Members: $100K/year for 5 years
- Affiliate Members: $5K/year (no multi-year commitment)

Ford and MIT have long had a productive research collaboration through the Ford-MIT Alliance, a partnership that began 10 years ago in 1997. The Ford-MIT Alliance was renewed this summer for three more years (Jan 2008 - Dec 2010) to the tune of $5M/year. (The last renewal was for 5 years from 2003-2007 at a level of support of $4M/year)

Including both its support of the Ford-MIT Alliance and the MIT Energy Initiative, Ford's support of the MIT energy community will rise to the level of $6M/year for sure for each of the next three years (a 50% increase over the total support it gave MIT through the Ford-MIT Alliance in 2007).