War Department reveals results of US college foreign financial and research audit

The Pentagon released the results Monday of its initial research security audits of 30 American universities over their financial and research relationships with foreign entities.

The War Department directed the universities, which included New York University, Harvard and Georgetown University, to review identified foreign collaborations and assess any exposure of "sensitive or export-controlled research," in August.

They were also directed to implement plans to mitigate actions that violate national security protocol and even terminate relationships with foreign institutions if necessary. 

The department said all schools completed the audits, which resulted in more than 80 termination-related actions across the 30 universities, including precautionary terminations involving entities not specifically identified on the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act's Section 1286 list.

The department also highlighted seven universities it said "went above and beyond" expectations by quickly terminating problematic relationships with the listed entities implementing significant mitigation measures to safeguard research.

The universities are: Oklahoma State University; The Pennsylvania State University; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; University of South Carolina; University of Southern California, University of Texas at Austin and Virginia Tech.

"These academic institutions that went above and beyond deserve immense credit for setting the benchmark in domestic research security," Joseph Jewell, Assistant Secretary of War for Science and Technology said. "Rather than settling for minimum compliance, these institutions took bold, self-initiated steps to protect their labs, faculty, and intellectual property from foreign exploitation. 

"Their proactive commitment ensures that groundbreaking research directly empowers the American warfighter and strengthens our Nation's technological edge," he added.

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.