The US Defense Department formally notified 30 domestic academic institutions, directing them to immediately review their "academic, financial, and research collaborations with foreign entities of concern," the department announced on Monday.
The "foreign entities of concern" are defined as institutions listed under Section 1286 of the Fiscal Year 2019 National Defense Authorization Act, "as well as organizations associated with the rebranded Confucius Institutes," the Defense Department said.
The list includes 130 research institutes based in Russia, China, and Iran, including civilian universities.
The 30 US universities must "complete a comprehensive audit of all identified foreign collaborations, assess the exposure of sensitive or export-controlled research, and implement strict mitigation plans, including the termination of problematic partnerships," the department said. All findings must be submitted to the Defense Department by August 31, it said.
The department did not publicly name the 30 institutions. However, a US official listed the institutions to Fox News.
US universities under review includes Harvard, UC Berkeley, MIT, NYU, official tells FOX News
According to the official, the institutions are: 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, and University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
The department is making its efforts alongside "partners in Congress," including the "House and Senate Armed Services Committees, the House and Senate Appropriations Committees, and the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party," it noted.
This coordination allows the Defense Department to "continue to build a robust research ecosystem that protects critical discoveries from exploitation," it added.
"This action is designed to protect American taxpayer-funded research investments from unauthorized technology transfer, intellectual property theft, and adversarial exploitation," the department said.
"The Department of War has zero tolerance for academic partnerships that compromise our national security," Undersecretary of War for Research and Engineering, Emil Michael, said.
"Institutions that receive funding from American taxpayers must uphold the highest standards of research security, and these mandated audits will ensure accountability across the board," Michael added.
"Universities are critical partners in executing a wide range of Department of War research programs, and the Department must therefore ensure that our research investments are well protected from foreign exploitation," Assistant Secretary of War for Science and Technology, Dr. Joseph Jewell, said.
Since the start of fiscal year 2026, the Pentagon cannot fund "fundamental research" with any organization on the list. Under the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act, the Trump administration downgraded China to the US's second-ranked threat.
However, this recent clampdown comes amid ongoing intensity in the Pentagon's scrutiny of how China can use American research and technology to improve its military capabilities.
This includes a review of how China's military researchers used outputs from US artificial intelligence models to train domestic systems, published by Reuters in June.
US repeatedly investigating Harvard for ties to Chinese research, academics
Additionally, an investigation into Harvard University, which is one of the institutions named by the US official to FOX News, stated that Harvard failed to safeguard research collaborations with Chinese institutions, according to FOX.
The Ivy League school also allegedly received over $600m. from China under the federal Section 117 foreign-gift disclosure system, FOX reported. This would constitute more than any other US university, according to an Education Department dashboard cited in a report from the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party.
Further, Harvard-affiliated researchers allegedly co-wrote work with academics from China's National University of Defense Technology, Beihang University, and Nanjing University of Science and Technology, as well as other Chinese institutions that are tied to the Chinese military, according to an investigation led by the Republican Party.
The investigation, reported by the South China Morning Post, a Hong Kong-based English-language outlet whose website is blocked in mainland China, cited the investigation, adding that the Republican Party's findings also accused Harvard of lacking the centralized infrastructure needed to identify and vet foreign research partnerships.