{"id":21514,"date":"2026-09-25T12:48:49","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T12:48:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/?p=21514"},"modified":"2026-09-25T12:48:49","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T12:48:49","slug":"behind-aaros-private-uap-workshop-new-records-detail-participants-foreign-outreach-and-future-plans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/behind-aaros-private-uap-workshop-new-records-detail-participants-foreign-outreach-and-future-plans\/","title":{"rendered":"Behind AARO\u2019s Private UAP Workshop: New Records Detail Participants, Foreign Outreach and Future Plans"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>A newly released collection of records from the Pentagon\u2019s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office provides a substantially more detailed look at the government-sponsored UAP research workshop held outside Washington, D.C., in August 2025, including a working agenda identifying speakers and panelists, previously unreleased correspondence concerning foreign participation, and evidence that AARO was already discussing a follow-on workshop months before the first event took place.<\/p>\n

The records also document a separate Pentagon engagement with representatives of Uruguay\u2019s official UAP investigative organization, including plans for reciprocal mission briefings, discussions about future collaboration, lunch with senior AARO personnel and a private Pentagon tour.<\/p>\n

The documents were released to The Black Vault under Freedom of Information Act case 26-F-1773. The request was filed March 17, 2026, one day after DefenseScoop<\/a> senior reporter Brandi Vincent<\/a> broke the story of the invitation-only workshop and obtained additional information about it from the Pentagon. Vincent\u2019s original reporting established that approximately 40 government, academic and independent researchers had participated in the AARO-sponsored gathering and detailed its emphasis on integrating narrative UAP data and applying artificial intelligence to large datasets.<\/p>\n

The new FOIA release does not fundamentally alter the publicly stated purpose or findings of the workshop. Instead, its significance is in filling in portions of the administrative record that AARO\u2019s public white paper left anonymous or generalized: who delivered some of the presentations, who sat on the panels, where the workshop actually occurred, and how AARO interacted with at least one foreign government UAP organization before the event.<\/p>\n

It is not a complete record. AARO identified 89 responsive pages but withheld 19 pages in their entirety under FOIA Exemption (b)(5)<\/a>, which protects certain deliberative government communications. Portions of the other 70 pages were withheld under Exemptions (b)(5) and (b)(6)<\/a>, with the latter protecting personal privacy.<\/p>\n

From a Public White Paper to the Records Behind It<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>AARO publicly released its 2025 UAP Workshop: Narrative Data, Infrastructures, and Analysis<\/a> paper in February 2026. The official document described an August 5-6, 2025 workshop sponsored by AARO and hosted by Associated Universities, Inc., or AUI, bringing together 40 participants from government, academia and independent research organizations.<\/p>\n

The workshop concentrated primarily on an unusually difficult UAP research problem: narrative reports.<\/p>\n

Unlike standardized sensor data, witness accounts can originate in military reports, civilian reporting systems, archives, social media and other sources using different terminology, formats and levels of documentation. The workshop considered methods for standardizing those records, connecting databases and using artificial intelligence and machine learning to process large quantities of material.<\/p>\n

Some participants had already publicly acknowledged attending. The National UFO Reporting Center announced<\/a> its participation on August 11, 2025, just days after the meeting, and later identified Chief Technical Officer Christian Stepien as a participant.<\/p>\n

The Society for UAP Studies also subsequently disclosed<\/a> its involvement and identified several participants. Its account said Michael Cifone delivered a presentation titled It\u2019s All About the Evidence and identified Robert Powell of the Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies among the speakers.<\/p>\n

Those disclosures are important because the workshop was private, but its existence and some of its participants were not secret after it occurred.<\/p>\n

The Working Agenda Names Speakers and Panelists<\/strong><\/p>\n

One of the clearest additions is an August 5, 2025, working agenda identifying people whose names and affiliations were omitted from the generic agenda later published in AARO\u2019s white paper.<\/p>\n

The newly released agenda identifies the workshop location as Associated Universities Inc., 2650 Park Tower Drive, Suite 700, Vienna, Virginia, across from the Dunn Loring Metro station.<\/p>\n

Opening remarks were scheduled from AUI representatives Tim Spuck<\/a> and Adam Cohen<\/a>, AARO Director Jon Kosloski, and Gretchen Stahlman<\/a> of Florida State University\u2019s School of Information.<\/p>\n

The keynote, titled \u201cSetting the stage: Importance of good UAP data,\u201d was assigned to Robert Powell of the Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies<\/a> and Kosloski.<\/p>\n

The agenda then names Laura Domine<\/a>, at the time identified as a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Astrophysics, Harvard University, for the first session.<\/p>\n

Domine\u2019s participation fits directly with the workshop\u2019s technical focus. Her published research includes work on the Galileo Project\u2019s multi-sensor systems for collecting scientific observations of aerial phenomena, including an infrared camera array designed to continuously monitor and classify objects in the sky.<\/p>\n

The first panel, \u201cOpportunities and challenges with AI,\u201d was to be moderated by Spuck. The working agenda identifies four panelists:<\/p>\n