Federal Policy

ODNI Establishes UAP Science Advisory Council, Taps Harvard Astrophysicist

The move formalizes government-academic coordination on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena, a domain where congressional oversight and intelligence community classification boundaries remain...

The Congressional Times · July 19, 2026

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence approached a Harvard astrophysicist within the past month to establish and lead a new U.S. government advisory council focused on the science of Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP), according to a first-person account published by the scientist. The ODNI representative's inquiry, as described by the astrophysicist, was whether the scientist would be willing to 'establish and lead a new advisory council for the US Government on the science of Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena.' The scientist confirmed acceptance of the role.

The council's stated purpose, as described by the scientist, is to advise the U.S. government on resolving the nature of UAP through scientific methodology. The ODNI is the lead intelligence coordination body established under the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 (Public Law 108-458) and oversees 18 U.S. intelligence community components. No formal ODNI press release or Federal Register notice confirming the council's creation had been publicly published as of July 19, 2026, based on a review of odni.gov and federalregister.gov.

Congressional interest in UAP has expanded significantly in recent sessions. The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022 (Public Law 117-81) established the Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group, and subsequent NDAA provisions in FY2023 and FY2024 created the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) within the Department of Defense, mandating reporting to the Senate Armed Services and Senate Intelligence Committees. AARO's authorizing statute requires it to coordinate with the intelligence community, including ODNI.

The composition of the new advisory council, its formal charter, the scope of its security clearance structure, its budget authority, and whether it operates under the Federal Advisory Committee Act (5 U.S.C. App. 2) — which would require public meeting notices and disclosed membership — are not yet confirmed in publicly available records. A FACA-governed advisory committee would be listed in the GSA's FACA database at facadatabase.gov.

What remains unknown includes: the number of council members and their affiliations, the reporting chain within ODNI, whether the council has a formal tasking memorandum, and the timeline for any public disclosures. The documents that would answer these questions are a FACA charter filing, an ODNI directive or memorandum, or a congressional notification letter to the relevant oversight committees — Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

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