Pro-Palestinian demonstrators march through Columbia University campus. Photo: AFP
The Israeli Ministry of Defence (MOD) and Israeli defence companies have channelled millions of US dollars into research programmes at American universities, with some of the funding not consistently appearing in national databases designed to track foreign funding, a Drop Site investigation has found.
An analysis of state and university audits, foreign-funding disclosures, research papers and other institutional records identified more than USD 15 million in funding linked to the Israeli MOD and Israeli weapons manufacturers that was either unreported or inconsistently recorded.
Drop Site said the true scale of the funding was difficult to establish because some payments were absent from public foreign-funding disclosures and had to be identified by cross-referencing audit records, university databases and acknowledgements in academic papers. Some university records also did not disclose funding amounts or contained conflicting information.
The records, dating from 2004 to 2025, show financial relationships involving universities including Columbia, Cornell, Princeton, Harvard, Northwestern, Georgia Tech, the University of Connecticut, the University of Tennessee, the University of Maryland, the University of Florida, the University of California, Berkeley, and the State University of New York.
The funding included research grants and contracts, tuition payments and gifts. The investigation also identified sponsorship of military-related research by Israeli defence companies including Elbit Systems, Rafael and Israel Aerospace Industries. The relationships documented in the records were not necessarily ongoing.
The records include projects involving technologies with potential military applications, including surveillance, human-activity recognition, autonomous flight, target identification, magnetic sensing and projectile modelling.
At the University of Connecticut, public audit records list an Israeli MOD-sponsored project titled “Impact Point Prediction Research for Short & Medium Range Thrusting Projectiles”. Annual federal-award schedules show USD 668,456 in funding across nine fiscal years between 2013 and 2023.
A second project, “High Sensitivity SQUIDs for Magnetic Field Detection”, received USD 251,336 during the same period.
Despite these records, the Education Department’s latest public disclosure of foreign gifts and funding reportedly contains no Israel-attributed entry for the University of Connecticut. Drop Site said the example illustrated how Israeli MOD funding can appear in university and audit records without being consistently reflected in national databases.
US law generally requires federally assisted universities to report foreign gifts and contracts worth at least USD 250,000. Multi-year agreements can also meet the threshold based on their total value. However, the Education Department’s inspector general warned in February 2025 that oversight of the system was weak.
At the University of Central Florida, researchers received Elbit Systems funding for algorithms designed to recognise human activity and detect objects in video.
Records from the University of Tennessee show that a US subsidiary of Elbit made USD 514,500 in payments to the university between 2023 and 2025. The available documentation described the payments as tuition for various students but did not identify the programmes or researchers supported.
Columbia University audit records identify two Israeli MOD-linked projects worth a combined USD 799,190. One project on three-dimensional printing of integrated electromechanical systems received USD 469,999 between 2016 and 2021. Another, focused on micro-resonator-based sensors, received USD 329,191 between 2021 and 2024.
The Research Foundation for the State University of New York recorded five Israeli MOD-linked projects totalling USD 949,915 between 2010 and 2021.
Florida’s statewide audits recorded USD 1,195,795 in expenditure passed through the Ministry of Defence between 2012 and 2021, although the records did not identify all recipient universities.
At the University of Maryland, aerospace engineering professor Inderjit Chopra’s research page lists USD 150,000 for autonomous operation of micro-helicopters and USD 300,000 for research into high-speed rotorcraft aeromechanics.
Princeton University records identify a USD 600,000 contract for research into a pulsed scalar atomic magnetometer, with the Israeli Ministry of Defence and the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency listed as sponsors.
Texas Tech University engineering newsletters list a USD 400,000 Israeli Defence Ministry award for research into a “Sealed Vircator HPM System”. The technology involves compact, high-power microwave sources and has potential military applications.
The investigation found that the funding trail does not always establish whether money originated in Israel or the US.
Some Israeli MOD awards are classified as US Department of Defence expenditures, with the Israeli ministry acting as a pass-through entity. MIT, for example, has said funding for its ministry-linked projects originated with the US Department of Defence.
Other audit records identify the Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency as the agency providing funding that was ultimately directed through the Israeli MOD.
The available records therefore do not establish whether every dollar associated with a particular research project came from Israel’s treasury, US military assistance or a combination of both.
The issue has also drawn scrutiny at MIT. In 2025, professor Markus Buehler withdrew from an Israeli Defence Ministry grant following a student-led campaign. MIT has said its ministry-linked projects received about USD 4 million between fiscal years 2015 and 2024, plus USD 290,000 in fiscal 2025.
The investigation comes as Washington considers deeper formal defence and technology cooperation with Israel.
The fiscal 2026 National Defense Authorization Act directed the Pentagon to establish a US-Israel Defense Industrial Base Working Group to consider integrating Israel into the American National Technology and Industrial Base.
A House Armed Services Committee proposal for the fiscal 2027 NDAA would go further by creating a United States-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative focused on bilateral research, development, testing, weapons production and industrial cooperation.
If enacted, the measures could transform the scattered research and funding relationships identified by Drop Site into a more formal part of the US defence-industrial system.
The investigation also highlights the limits of the current foreign-funding disclosure system. Funding below the USD 250,000 threshold may remain outside public reporting, while some university records acknowledge Israeli defence sponsorship without disclosing the amount.
At the University of Texas at Austin, for example, records show USD 58,992 in expenditure under an Israeli MOD purchase order in fiscal 2013. State audit schedules show related expenditure between 2010 and 2014, bringing the recorded total to USD 299,952.
The audit records also contain Israeli military-linked expenditures involving Northwestern University, Washington University in St Louis and universities in Virginia.
The university funding links identified by the investigation form part of a much larger US-Israel military relationship. Israel has received more US foreign assistance cumulatively than any other country since the Second World War. Congressional Research Service figures put US bilateral assistance and missile-defence funding for Israel at about USD 174 billion through May 2025.
The current aid framework stems from a 2016 agreement covering fiscal years 2019 through 2028. It provides for USD 38 billion in US military assistance, subject to congressional approval. Of that amount, USD 33 billion is allocated through Foreign Military Financing, while another USD 5 billion supports joint missile-defence programmes.
This post was last modified on August 25, 2026 5:08 pm