Scientific and Data Consultancy, Metro Brisbane

A sole-trader scientific and data science consultant based in metro Brisbane came to us looking for Professional Indemnity cover. The work spans research and data consulting for medical research teams, and the projects are genuinely international. In a given year the client is supporting research groups in Australia, the United States, Germany and South Africa.

On paper the client's turnover is modest. Well inside the $100k to $300k range that's typical for life sciences consultancies at this stage. The technical work is high-trust though. Data errors, statistical misinterpretation or flawed analysis on a research dataset can flow through into published findings, funding decisions and, at the far end, patient-facing outcomes.

Standard Australian PI markets tend to freeze up on two things at once:

• Overseas exposure, especially the US
• Occupations that sit outside their pre-approved risk lists

"Scientific and data consulting for medical research" checks both boxes. When we first tried a couple of mainstream markets as a sanity check, they declined or quoted at unworkable levels.

We moved the submission to a specialist PI market that writes research and technical consulting risks. The positioning focused on the advisory nature of the work, the absence of any clinical decision-making, and the fact that the client operates as a sole trader with a well-documented scope.

The international exposure was the main sticking point. Anything touching the United States makes mainstream insurers nervous because of the litigation environment, and adding Germany and South Africa on top of that just widens the concern.

The second challenge was getting the premium down to something appropriate for a sole-trader consultancy. There's no point securing terms if the premium eats half the year's revenue.

We placed a $1M Professional Indemnity policy through a specialist market at an annual premium of around $900.

For research, data or scientific consultancies with international clients, the starting point isn't price. It's access. A broker who can reach markets that actively write this work is usually the difference between a placement and a decline. More on how we approach these placements on our life sciences insurance page, or see how we handle adjacent risks on our independent researchers insurance page.