US universities received millions in Israeli defence-linked research funding, investigation finds
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More than $15 million in research funding linked to Israel's Ministry of Defence and Israeli defence companies went to US universities between 2004 and 2025, with some of the funding not consistently reported in US databases, according to a Drop Site investigation.
The analysis by the Antiwar Initiative examined university and state audit records, foreign-funding disclosures and academic documents. It identified financial links between Israel's defence establishment and dozens of US universities, including Columbia, Cornell, Princeton, Harvard, Northwestern, Georgia Tech, the University of Connecticut, the University of Maryland, UC Berkeley and MIT.
The funding came through research grants, contracts, tuition payments and other forms of support. In some cases, Israel's Ministry of Defence directly sponsored projects, while Israeli defence companies including Elbit Systems, Rafael and Israel Aerospace Industries were involved in others.
At the University of Connecticut, state audit records show that a project researching impact-point prediction for short and medium-range thrusting projectiles received $668,456 from Israel's Ministry of Defence between 2013 and 2023. Another project on magnetic field detection received $251,336.
Columbia records show two Ministry of Defence-linked projects worth a combined $799,190. The State University of New York's research foundation recorded five such projects worth $949,915 between 2010 and 2021.
Florida state audits recorded $1.19 million in expenditures passed through Israel's Ministry of Defence between 2012 and 2021, although the records did not identify all recipient universities.
Princeton records show a $600,000 contract for research into a pulsed scalar atomic magnetometer, while Texas Tech received $400,000 for research into a “Sealed Vircator HPM System”.
MIT reported about $4 million in Israeli Ministry of Defence-linked projects between fiscal years 2015 and 2024, along with another $290,000 in fiscal 2025.
Researchers at the University of Texas at Dallas also developed a video-surveillance system with funding from Elbit Systems of America. The University of Maryland received funding for research into autonomous micro-helicopters and high-speed rotorcraft.
William Hartung, a political scientist and expert on the US arms industry and Pentagon budgets, criticised universities accepting such funding, citing Israel's use of US weapons.