A recent investigation by Drop Site reveals that millions of dollars from Israel’s Ministry of Defence and Israeli weapons companies have been funneled into research at US universities. However, much of this funding is not consistently reported in US databases designed to track foreign financial contributions. This raises concerns about transparency in the funding of academic research in the United States.
The funding was provided through research grants, contracts, tuition payments and other forms of support. In some cases, Israel’s Ministry of Defence directly sponsored projects. In others, Israeli weapons companies such as Elbit Systems, Rafael and Israel Aerospace Industries were involved. One example comes from the University of Connecticut. At the University of Texas at Dallas, researchers developed a video-surveillance system with funding from Elbit Systems of America.
The State University of New York’s research foundation recorded five Israeli Ministry of Defence-linked projects worth $949,915 between 2010 and 2021. Florida’s statewide audits also recorded $1.19 million in expenditures passed through Israel’s Ministry of Defence between 2012 and 2021, although the records did not identify all the universities that received the money. Researchers at the University of Maryland also received $150,000 for work on the autonomous operation of micro-helicopters and another $300,000 for research into rotorcraft flying at high speeds.
State audit records show that a project called “Impact Point Prediction Research for Short & Medium Range Thrusting Projectiles” received $668,456 from Israel’s Ministry of Defence over nine fiscal years between 2013 and 2023. Princeton University records show a $600,000 contract for research into a “Pulsed Scalar Atomic Magnetometer”, sponsored by Israel’s Ministry of Defence and the US Defence Security Cooperation Agency.
