Academic funding for UAP research

Two pieces of funding to support academic research into UAP, have been revealed in recent times. The first is a donation to the University of Albany; and the second is a proposal by the state of New Jersey in the USA to establish an academic Center for the Study of UAP. Both lines of funding are unprecedented in the academic study of UAP. It is interesting that it should be the state of New Jersey, given all the "drone" sightings reported there, in the not so distant past.

University of Albany

In a 5 November 2025 news release, the University of Albany announced that it had received "...a transformational endowment gift from longtime businessman Tony Gorman to support cutting-edge physics research on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAPs.)"

Gorman said "When I saw the UAP research the UAlbany team is doing I wanted to learn more." The team members are Matthew Szydagis, Celia Levy and Kevin Knuth. Their intent is to create "...a long term foundation for scientific rigor...the physics department's UAP research base grows with the recent addition of physicist Dr. Eric W. Davis as visiting adjunct faculty..."

"The financial gift also makes possible the launch of UAlbany Project X (UAPx) a new academic collaboration focused solely on advancing rigorous science in the study of UAP..."

New Jersey

A 17 December 2025 announcement on safeaerospace.org advised that the US state of New Jersey in "Moving towards becoming the first state in the nation to establish and fund a dedicated Center for the Study of Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena" via Senate bill 4432 and companion Assembly Bill 5712. "The legislation ...appropriates $3.5 million total across two different programs..."

One of the proposed programs, an aviation education grants program, would see it supporting the establishment of a Center for the Study of UAP, at an academic institution, via a grants program. Such an arrangement would add a level of credibility for such a Center.

2026 UAP Detection and Tracking Summit

A new UAP conference

A website has appeared advertising a two day  virtual conference titled "2026 UAP Detection and Tracking Summit," to be held 7-8 February 2026. The website lays out that "The Summit will explore the technologies, methodologies, and collaborative framework essential to understanding and monitoring UAP." 

It presents seven critical issues which the organizers believe need to be addressed including the "Need for frequency/spectrum analysis" and " Insufficient sustained funding."

A list of six "Summit goals" is presented, including "Establish scientific standards and methodologies" and "Secure adequate funding streams."

Themes and speakers

It is often by looking at the program details, that one can judge the worth of a conference such as this. Below is a list of themes and speakers, extracted from the event website:

1. "In our skies: The current state of UAP."

Congressman Eric Burlison.

2. "In our oceans."

Richard Dolan.

3. "Emerging platforms in UAP detection and tracking."

David Dominguez Hooper, Fred Pallesen, Gerry and John Tedesco, Rainer Haseit.

4. "Scientific foundations for UAP detection and tracking."

Matthew Szydagis.

5. "Multimodal UAP detection and tracking."

Philippe Ailleris, Adam Yingling, Gene Greneker.

6. "On the frontiers of UAP detection."

James Fowler. 

7. "International UAP detection and tracking."

Massimo Teodorani.

8. "Citizen reporting networks."

Peter Davenport, Robert Spearing.

9. " Skywatcher framework: Technical field operation to scientific analysis."

Garry Nolan.

10. "UAP detection: Policy and tracking oversight."

Speakers to be announced.

11. "Scaling UAP solutions."

Speakers to be announced.

12. "Strategic solutions roadmap."

Rich Hoffman, Adam Yingling. 

Trove of James E. McDonald UAP related material

A collection of UAP related, and other documents by/about the late James E. McDonald has been uploaded to a server at Princeton University in the USA. The collection sits on the website of Kirk T. McDonald, Professor Emeritus, Department of Physics at Princeton. 

Ann Druffel's 2003 book titled "Firestorm: Dr. James E. McDonald's Fight for UFO Science" gives details of McDonald's six children, including the eldest son Kirk. 

The trove of documents, the largest online collection of James E. McDonald's work of which I am aware, includes copies of:

* Letters

* UAP magazine articles

* John Kenneth Gillin's 2013 thesis about McDonald's UAP work

* McDonald's statement to the 1968 UFO Symposium

* A 100 page PDF of summaries of audio recordings of McDonald's 1967 interviews of Australian witnesses

* Various talks by McDonald

* Meteorological papers

* Details of the University of Arizona McDonald special collection

* A bibliography

* Newspaper articles

* An MP4 file titled "Westall_UFO" re the 6 April 1966 Westall, Melbourne, Australia event.

Acknowledgements:

1. Thanks to Melbourne researcher Jimmy Cychowski for advising me of the existence of this site.

2. Thanks also to Sydney researcher Anthony Clarke for providing the direct link to the UAP related material. 

Note:

I note that another one of McDonald's children, Ronilyn, in 1967 wrote a thesis as part of her Bachelors in Psychology titled "Psychological Aspects of Unidentified Flying Objects."