Right of Access to Information; Access to Information Law; University

This project aims to present details for conducting doctoral research that has, as its central question, the understanding of how the dynamics of receiving, processing, forwarding, and responding to requests for access to information via Lei de Acesso à Informação (LAI) are structured in Brazilian public universities, and what these dynamics reveal about the organizational, cultural, and social relationships that permeate the right of access to information in these institutions. The overall objective is to examine how the dynamics of LAI are structured in 27 universities, chosen among the institutions with the highest performance per state in the 2021 edition of the Índice Geral de Cursos - IGC, from Ministério da Educação, in order to provide a national overview of the subject. The specific objectives are as follows: a) to create a diagnosis of LAI in federal universities; b) to identify factors that hinder and factors that optimize the process of handling requests for access to information in these institutions; and c) to suggest improvements in the procedures involving LAI in federal universities. To achieve these objectives, qualitative field research is intended, conducted under the depth hermeneutics method, using the following research techniques: conducting a systematic literature review; conducting bibliographic research on the object of study; simulating the exercise of the right of access to information by citizens through the submission of an inquiry via the passive transparency platform of LAI; conducting semi-structured interviews with public agents responsible for managing the Serviço de Informação ao Cidadão (SIC) of the five universities that received the most requests for information in 2022, one per region; and sending a questionnaire to the SIC of each of investigated universities. The collected data will be analyzed based on the procedures of the depth hermeneutics method. This project is divided into the following sections: theoretical framework; methodological approach; schedule; budget; final considerations; and appendices.