FOIA Release Reveals Participants, Foreign Outreach, and Follow-On Plans Behind AARO's August 2025 Private UAP Workshop

Records released under FOIA case 26-F-1773, filed March 17, 2026, provide a working agenda for AARO's August 5–6, 2025 UAP research workshop held at AUI offices in Vienna, Virginia. The agenda names AARO Director Jon Kosloski and AUI representatives Tim Spuck and Adam Cohen as delivering opening remarks alongside Gretchen Stahlman of Florida State University's School of Information. The keynote — "Setting the stage: Importance of good UAP data" — was jointly assigned to Kosloski and Robert Powell of the Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies. Additional named speakers include Laura Domine, a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard Center for Astrophysics whose published research includes work on the Galileo Project's multi-sensor UAP observation systems.

The working agenda identifies the first panel, "Opportunities and challenges with AI," as including machine-learning engineer Abigail Haddad; Elliott Hauser, assistant professor at the University of Texas at Austin School of Information; Duncan McCaskill, formerly of the U.S. Navy Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office; and Matthew Szydagis, associate professor of physics at the University at Albany. The second day included a presentation by Stephen Breuhl of Vanderbilt University Medical Center and a panel on "Harmonizing qualitative and quantitative perspectives on narrative data" featuring Michael Cifone, Amanda Focke (head of Special Collections at Rice University's Fondren Library), Ben Gibson (social/behavioral scientist, RAND Corporation), and NUFORC Chief Technical Officer Christian Stepien.

A separate and substantive thread in the release concerns CRIDOVNI, Uruguay's official Air Force commission for UAP investigation. In July 2025 correspondence, an AARO partner-engagement officer arranged hotel accommodations for Uruguayan visitors, proposed a Pentagon meeting on August 4 — the day before the workshop — and outlined an agenda of reciprocal mission briefings, discussion of analytical methods and future collaboration, a Pentagon lunch with Kosloski and AARO Chief Technology Officer Josh Reiter, and a private Pentagon tour. The Uruguayan correspondent agreed, writing that establishing "a further working relationship with the AARO, and to exchange information and experiences" was "of special interest." The identities of the CRIDOVNI visitors are redacted under Exemption (b)(6). A July 29 email detailed the approved schedule: a 1000–1030 CRIDOVNI mission briefing, 1030–1100 AARO mission briefing, and 1100–1200 discussion of future collaboration. Personal hospitality extended further: one email notes that Kosloski planned to drive the visitors and his wife to a Sunday Catholic Mass on August 3 and locate a nearby church.

The records also document AARO's effort to expand South American participation. One email notes that no other South American guests had registered and that an invitation had been sent through a Chilean contact to SEFAA without response. AARO asked the Uruguayan representatives for contacts at other South American UAP research organizations for a future event. The same email discloses that "AARO plans to hold a follow-on data workshop in early 2026" — a statement made before the August 2025 workshop had convened. When DefenseScoop reported on the workshop in March 2026, Pentagon spokesperson Sue Gough said AARO hoped to hold future workshops "as needed" but had no additional workshops to announce at that time. The records do not resolve whether the early-2026 event occurred, was postponed, or was canceled.

The release also includes the DD Form 1910 Pentagon clearance paperwork for AARO's subsequent white paper, listing Kosloski as author and describing the document as an 18-page unclassified paper intended for publication on AUI's website with promotion via AARO.mil social media. AARO identified 89 pages as responsive to the FOIA request; 19 were withheld in full under Exemption (b)(5) as deliberative communications containing "subjective evaluations, opinions and recommendations." Portions of the remaining 70 pages were withheld under (b)(5) and (b)(6). The Black Vault noted that additional FOIA requests on related matters were forthcoming.