The terms that back every paid project we ship.

Every paid project starts with a Statement of Work (SOW) we send by email before any payment.

The SOW specifies the deliverable, the turnaround in business days, the price, and any third-party data costs (paid API access, licensed datasets) itemised separately.

We don't start work until you approve the SOW and pay the invoice. If the brief changes after work starts, we re-scope in writing — no surprise additions, no scope-creep billing.

On delivery, all written content, data, analysis, and source code we produce for you is yours by full assignment. You can publish it, cite it, sell it, modify it, or do nothing with it.

For grants: your name on the application. No Empirica byline required, unless you choose to credit us.

We retain the right to reference the project in case studies only with your written approval. If you say no, we don't mention you publicly — no exceptions.

We retain ownership of our own internal tools, prompts, and validator infrastructure that produced your deliverable. Your deliverable is yours; the kitchen that cooked it stays ours.

• Reports: 5 business days (Focused), 10 (Standard), 15 (Deep)
• Grants: 5 business days (Seed / LOI), 11 (Standard), 25 (Major)
• Engagements: scoped per project, committed in the SOW

“Business days” = Monday to Friday, AU public holidays excluded. “Kickoff” = the business day after your payment lands.

If we miss the SOW turnaround by more than 2 business days without prior agreement, you can invoke the refund window (below) regardless of deliverable quality — the missed deadline is the trigger on its own.

If the first deliverable doesn't meet the SOW brief, email empirica@empiricaai.org within 7 calendar days of delivery.

We refund the full project fee, minus any third-party data costs we paid for (these are itemised in the SOW upfront, so there are no surprises).

No questions, no negotiation, no retention call. Refunds processed within 5 business days of you invoking the window.

One condition only: the deliverable matched the brief but you changed your mind later doesn't qualify. The trigger is “the work didn't do what the SOW said it would do” — not buyer's remorse.

Anything you share with us during a project is confidential by default. We don't reference, quote, or share it without your written approval.

Mutual NDA available on request, included by default on Major-tier grant packages.

Our public research is independent — we don't include client data, client questions, or client identities in published work unless you've explicitly cleared it.

Our agents process your data within standard cloud infrastructure (AWS, ap-southeast-2). We don't train models on your data. We don't share your data with third parties beyond the LLM provider call needed to process it.

Fixed quote per project, invoiced via Stripe before work starts.

For Engagements above $10,000, milestone billing is available (typically 50% kickoff / 50% delivery).

We don't take success fees, revenue share, or equity instead of cash. The price in the SOW is the price.

Refunds, when invoked under section 4, are processed within 5 business days back to the original payment method.

Every email gets a reply or status update within 24 hours on business days. No silence, no chasing.

During an active project, you can request a shared Slack channel for faster back-and-forth — no extra cost.

• No financial advice. We are not licensed to provide personal or general financial advice under the Australian Corporations Act 2001 (AFSL regime). Our research is data, methodology, and evidence — never “picks”, buy / sell recommendations, or signals to trade on.
• No guaranteed grant outcomes. Reviewer panels make funding decisions, not us. We commit to the deliverable quality, not the funding result.
• No data-quality miracles. If the source data you give us is incomplete or wrong, we'll flag it but we can't fix it. Garbage in, garbage out.
• No legal, medical, or regulatory advice. Our research can inform decisions in those areas; it cannot replace a lawyer, doctor, or regulator.
• No work outside the SOW. Scope creep gets a re-scope conversation, not a silent expansion of the bill.

Either side can cancel an active project at any time with written notice.

If you cancel: you pay for work completed up to the cancellation date, pro-rata. We hand over whatever's in draft so you don't lose what you've already paid for.

If we cancel (rare — ethical conflict, scope drift beyond our ability to deliver, or material misrepresentation in the brief): full refund of fees for work not delivered.

These terms are governed by the laws of Victoria, Australia.

For projects with international clients, you may propose your own MSA — we'll cross-reference these terms in the SOW where the MSA is silent. We don't sign US-style indemnity that would make us liable for downstream business decisions made on the basis of our research.

Provider: Empirica Technologies Pty Ltd — ABN 76 698 226 247 — Melbourne, Australia.