The Australian National University has been accused of concealing agreements with weapons companies whose combined value could be in the millions.
This comes after the university said it had accepted $46,000 from Northrop Grumman, a leading arms manufacturer, in the 2023-2024 financial year to support a summer student program.
Funding for this program, at the Advanced Instrumentation and Technology Centre, was reported as a result of questioning during Senate estimates.
Independent senator David Pocock had asked for the total value of philanthropic donations and funding received, as of July 1, from companies whose activities involved weapons manufacturing.
Dr Tilman Ruff AO, an associate professor at University of Melbourne which disclosed nine ongoing research projects worth upwards of $7 million funded by defence companies, claims the ANU's response is "extremely incomplete".
He works at the Nossal Institute for Global Health and co-founded a Nobel Peace Prize-winning organisation that campaigns against nuclear weapons.
Dr Ruff said public universities had partnerships with multiple defence companies with the support of the Australian government.
"Not many [agreements] are publicly available, but they're all in the millions - the research partnerships, student activities and scholarships," he said.
"I simply can't believe [$46,000] is the sum total of the university's engagement with weapons companies, over the course of the whole year ... completely implausible."
"There must be ongoing research partnerships and I would expect new ones, particularly in the era of the government really actively promoting the role of universities in the defense sector, with the AUKUS plans."
Dr Ruff said the ANU along with other institutions like the University of New South Wales were doing significant work in the field of physics, engineering, and nuclear technology.
He added such developments were often backed by the Advanced Strategic Capabilities Accelerator which promotes partnerships with the Australian Defence Force.
ANU's response
The Australian National University was approached for comment.
A university spokesperson did not respond to Dr Ruff's claims, but they said the university had "no current agreements in Israel or Palestine".
The ANU recently revised its socially responsible investment policy to exclude "controversial weapons manufacturers" and "civilian arms manufacturers" from its long-term pool.
These included makers of chemical, biological and some nuclear weapons.
ANU's website said the policy only covered investment and did not apply to research and academic partnerships.
Reporting an estimate of more than 500 active agreements, the university said research collaboration was subject to legal limits and internal systems like ethics approvals.
The website for its Advanced Instrumentation and Technology Centre mentioned more than 30 partnerships.
It listed government departments, universities and manufacturers like Electro Optic Systems, Northrop Grumman and its parent company Lockheed Martin.
Dr Ruff said some military and defence-related research was "perfectly legitimate" and he had been working with his university since 2016 to revise its engagement policy.
"It'd be a perfectly appropriate strategy for universities to exclude partnerships with entities that are involved in producing and profiting from ... weapons of mass destruction," he said.
"That includes biological and chemical weapons, land mines, cluster munitions and more recently, nuclear weapons as well as blinding laser weapons."
Dr Ruff added such partnerships undermined universities' ethical standards.
He said "consistent" policies would draw the line at companies involved with weapons deemed illegal by international laws and treaties.
