JACKSON (AP) — A $2.4 million state grant will be used to support a partnership between General Electric Co. and the University of Southern Mississippi.

Gov. Haley Barbour and GE Aviation officials were on the Hattiesburg campus Monday to announce that USM's School of Polymers and High Performance Materials will partner with GE on a research project focused on the development of composite materials for the GEnx engine.

The research project will last one year.

GE Aviation, which generated revenues of $16.8 billion in 2007, has a plant in Batesville that produces composite-material parts for jet engines.

The company says the GEnx engine is the world's only jet engine with composite fan blades, fan platforms and fan case. It will power the Boeing 787 and 747-8 aircraft.