Washington, September 1
On the night of August 31, the US Department of Defense (DoD) issued an order to 30 US research universities to audit and potentially terminate partnerships with foreign entities of concern by the end of August 2026. The order, which the Trump administration calls the Department of War, does not specify which foreign entities are targeted, but a DoD list published in July identified 130 universities and research institutes in China, Russia, and Iran that the DoD claims are wrongly appropriating US-funded technologies. Emil Michael, the DoD’s undersecretary of war for research and engineering, said, “The Department of War has zero tolerance for academic partnerships that compromise our national security. Institutions that receive funding from American taxpayers must uphold the highest standards of research security, and these mandated audits will ensure accountability across the board.”
The universities affected include Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cornell University, and Johns Hopkins University. Universities that fail to comply risk losing funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Office of Naval Research, and the Air Force Research Laboratory—losses that could potentially close entire academic research groups or departments. The order reflects ongoing US government efforts to safeguard federally funded research from foreign exploitation, particularly from China, Russia, and Iran, amid heightened national security concerns. The deadline for compliance is the end of August 2026, and universities must complete the audits and take any required actions to maintain their eligibility for DoD research funding.
The List of 130 Foreign Entities
The DoD list published in July named 130 universities and research institutes in China, Russia, and Iran that the department claims are wrongly appropriating US-funded technologies. The list includes institutions like Tsinghua University in Beijing, Moscow State University, and the Sharif University of Technology in Tehran.
The Impact on US Universities
The order has raised concerns among some US universities that they may be unfairly targeted due to their collaborations with foreign institutions. Critics argue that such partnerships are essential for global academic exchange and research progress. However, the DoD maintains that these partnerships pose a threat to national security, and the audits are designed “to protect American taxpayer-funded research investments from unauthorized technology transfer, intellectual property theft, and adversarial exploitation.”
Looking forward, it remains to be seen how the audits will be conducted, and whether they will lead to the termination of partnerships between US research universities and foreign entities. The US administration has not indicated whether the list of 130 foreign entities is exhaustive, or if additional entities may be added in the future.
