Introduction
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When people think about PhDs they directly think about academia. And rightly so, a PhD is by definition a “title conferred by the highest university degree” (Britannica, 2019). Just like any degree, a PhD is directly linked to the institution that confers the title regardless of whether the project is developed in institutions outside the academic environment. However, nowadays there exist scholarship schemes which require the involvement of partners unrelated to academia. An example of such is our iPLACENTA project which is part of the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Innovative Training Networks (ITN). Innovative Training Networks foster the collaboration of beneficiaries (institutions which host PhD students) from academia as well as the non-academic sector (in iPLACENTA’s case: universities, clinical research institutions and industry). Even if ITNs have been around since 2014 [1], not many people know about this interdisciplinary form of PhD.   ​

As we are both enrolled in this type of PhD, this blog is an opportunity to share our personal experiences of Early Stage Researchers in the private sector, and, specifically, what it means to be one at Mimetas. Chapter after chapter, we will explore the life-enriching experience that is doing a Ph.D. outside the academic world.