The US Department of Defense has given 30 American research universities until the end of the month to audit, and potentially terminate, their partnerships with universities and military training institutions in what it calls “foreign entities of concern.” Institutions that fail to comply risk losing funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Office of Naval Research, and the Air Force Research Laboratory — losses that could shut down entire academic research groups or departments.
The order does not specify which foreign entities it targets, but a list published by the department last month identified 130 universities and research institutes in China, Russia and Iran that it claims have been wrongly appropriating US-funded technologies. The department also stated that the order applies to “organizations associated with rebranded Confucius Institutes,” the cultural programs linked to US universities that began in 2004.
The Defense Department said the audit process is designed “to protect American taxpayer-funded research investments from unauthorized technology transfer, intellectual property theft and adversarial exploitation.” It added that the reviews will allow the department to “better anticipate emerging threats, adapt to evolving adversarial tactics and maintain America’s position as a global leader in innovation.”
“The Department of War has zero tolerance for academic partnerships that compromise our national security,” said Emil Michael, the department’s undersecretary of war for research and engineering. “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.”
Universities affected by the order include Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cornell University and Johns Hopkins University. The department has not explained why these 30 institutions were selected for audit. Since taking office last year, the current administration has criticized prominent universities over issues including antisemitism and their use of diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
Harvard has drawn particular attention from the administration, which has cut or delayed government grants to its departments while fighting the university in court. A Republican majority House of Representatives committee issued a report on August 13 claiming that Harvard received more than $630 million from Chinese sources. The report also noted that the university created a nonprofit organization, Harvard Global, to accept overseas grants that the university itself is not legally permitted to receive.
The audit order comes as the administration prepares to welcome Chinese President Xi Jinping to the United States late next month. In response to the order, China’s embassy in Washington issued a statement opposing what it called the politicization of normal scientific, educational and academic exchanges.
“The US side should abandon the Cold War mentality and foster an open, fair, and non-discriminatory environment for educational, scientific, and people-to-people exchanges between China and the United States,” the statement declared. Physics World contacted some of the universities affected by the order but did not receive a response.