DAI is a modality of admission to existing academic doctoral courses in which the identification of the doctoral project is the result of a period spent by the doctoral student in laboratories and research centers of public or private companies and industries. The project that results from this period is developed in collaboration between the university and the company. 

The DAI is structured in two phases, a pre-doctoral phase (project mining phase – maximum duration of 6 months) and a doctoral phase (project execution phase). 

During each of these phases, the student has academic and industrial supervision/orientation. 

The transition from the pre-doctoral phase to the doctoral phase is subject to an evaluation, which, among other aspects, will consider the adequacy of the student's project to the program's objectives. Research, development or innovation (R&D&I) projects of common interest between the company and the university are acceptable. These projects may aim to develop new materials, devices, equipment, techniques, software, algorithms, etc. The program involves three institutional partnerships: 

a) UFABC; 
b) a private, public or mixed economy company or industry that carries out research, development or innovation (R&D&I) activities in its own facilities or in third-party facilities; 
c) CNPq, which finances the pre-doctoral phase through a grant (with a duration limited to 6 months) and, if this phase results in a doctoral project agreed between the company and the university, finances this project through a conventional doctoral fellowship.