US Government Seriously Investigates UFOs, But Why Are Universities Still Silent?
For decades, the topic of UFOs has often been considered the realm of speculation or even conspiracy theories. However, in recent years, the US government’s attitude towards this phenomenon has changed dramatically. The question now is not whether UFOs—or what is now called Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP)—are worth investigating, but why the academic world is still reluctant to touch it.
In February 2026, US President Donald Trump ordered the Pentagon and several federal agencies to begin opening government archives related to UFOs and UAP. This step is a response to increasing pressure from Congress, military whistleblowers, and the public.
In fact, UAP investigations are not new for the government. Since December 2022, Congress has officially mandated research into this phenomenon through the National Defense Authorization Act.
Currently, the Pentagon’s official investigation body, named the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), is handling more than 2,000 UAP reports since 1945. This figure was confirmed directly by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
These reports come from military pilots, armed forces personnel, and government employees who observed flying objects that could not be explained as aircraft, drones, or weather phenomena.
Even so, America is not the only country seriously researching this phenomenon. Japan, France, Brazil, and Canada also have official UAP investigation programmes.
However, amid the growing attention from governments, universities are almost not involved at all.
In addition, there are no doctoral programmes training researchers in UAP research methodologies.
In other words, there is a large gap between the government’s recognition of this phenomenon and the universities’ readiness to study it scientifically.
Darrell Evans, a professor of environmental science and sustainability at Purdue University, is one of the academics trying to bridge that gap.
He developed the temporal aerospace correlation tool, a methodological framework that links civilian UAP sighting reports with rocket launch activities from Cape Canaveral.
His research is currently undergoing peer review in the scientific journal Limina: The Journal of UAP Studies.
However, Evans admits that building a UAP research methodology is not easy.
He had to make various methodological decisions without scientific community standards, without institutional funding, and without the professional infrastructure usually available in other research fields.
According to Evans, the main problem is not a lack of data or interest.
“What is missing is not curiosity or data. What is missing is a shared framework that can turn separate curiosity into developing science.”
Strong evidence for this comes from research by Marissa Yingling, Charlton Yingling, and Bethany Bell, published in the scientific journal Humanities and Social Sciences Communications.
They conducted a national survey in 2023 of 1,460 lecturers from 144 major research universities in the United States, covering 14 scientific disciplines.
The results are quite surprising.
The majority of respondents consider UAP research important. Even in every discipline studied, curiosity is greater than scepticism.