Pentagon threatens universities that have ties to ‘foreign entities of concern,’ hints at additional audits

The Defense Department announced Monday the results of recent “research security audits” of 30 academic institutions across the country and suggested that probes of other universities could be on the horizon.

In August, Pentagon leaders instructed 30 American universities and specialized technology institutes to immediately audit their academic, financial and research connections to foreign organizations on the so-called Section 1286 list that are deemed to be a security risk due to the possibility that they could exploit American research for adversarial purposes.

As DefenseScoop previously reported, the schools that were directed to conduct audits included:

• Georgetown University
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• University of California, Berkeley
• University of California, San Diego
• University of Texas at Austin
• Emory University
• Harvard University
• Oklahoma State University
• Penn State University
• University of California, Los Angeles
• University of Cincinnati
• University of Minnesota
• University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
• University of South Carolina
• University of Southern California
• Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
• Worcester Polytechnic Institute
• Bryant University
• Cornell University
• Drake University
• Duke University
• Illinois Institute of Technology
• Johns Hopkins University
• New York University
• Northeastern State University, Tahlequah (Oklahoma)
• Portland State University
• Southern Illinois University, Carbondale
• Stony Brook University
• University of Delaware
• University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

The Section 1286 list includes a slew of Chinese, Russian and Iranian entities. American research institutions that partner with those organizations are at risk of losing Defense Department funding.

According to a Pentagon website, the department is “prohibited from using any funds for fundamental research that involves collaboration with any entity on the most recent Section 1286 list. This prohibition on obligating or expending funds applies to grants, contracts or any other assistance to institutions of higher education.”

The website noted that researchers are required to disclose all affiliations with the listed entities, including activities related to “foreign talent recruitment programs.”

The Pentagon in August said that the fast-tracked auditing effort was designed to protect taxpayer-funded research investments from unauthorized technology transfer, IP theft and adversarial exploitation.

“All 30 universities have fully mitigated identified relationships with foreign entities of concern included on the most recent NDAA Section 1286 list, published in July 2026. Overall, the audits resulted in more than 80 termination-related actions across the 30 universities. These actions included the termination of relationships with entities on the NDAA Section 1286 list, as well as precautionary terminations involving entities not specifically identified on the list,” officials wrote in a Pentagon press release issued Monday.

Officials praised seven of the organizations for going “above and beyond” in their risk mitigation efforts that stemmed from the audits: Oklahoma State, Penn State, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of South Carolina, University of Southern California, University of Texas at Austin, and Virginia Tech.

The press release did not indicate that any of the 30 organizations involved in the audits are set to lose DOD funding in the wake of the their mitigation efforts. DefenseScoop is seeking more information from the Pentagon in that regard.

“The Department commends the institutions that took decisive action to mitigate relationships that could expose American research to foreign exploitation,” Pentagon CTO and Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Emil Michael said in the press release.

He suggested that the department may conduct additional audits of universities and warned that organizations could lose federal funding.

“Our work will continue,” Michael said. “Institutions that fail to meet research security standards are on notice: taxpayer dollars will not support institutions whose partnerships put the American warfighter or the Nation’s technological advantage at risk.”

According to the press release, the Pentagon will continue to “assess universities that retain problematic relationships” with entities on the Section 1286 list.