MANDATORY AGENCY INNOVATION ALLOCATIONS

Legislators or budget authorities can require public agencies to reserve a defined share of their research or development budgets for qualifying innovation. Agencies then award that money through grants, research contracts or other permitted instruments and report whether they met the allocation. A CDR application could require relevant agencies to support removal technologies, measurement or specialist suppliers through their existing missions.

The allocation needs a precise denominator, meaning the spending base to which the required percentage applies. Authorities should define whether it covers all research spending, only research awarded outside government, or particular programmes, and which agencies must participate. They should also decide whether the reserved funding targets CDR itself, smaller suppliers or a specific partnership model. Rules need to distinguish new awards from relabelled existing activity, prevent the same award satisfying several requirements without permission, and specify treatment of unspent funds. Research contracts can answer an agency's own needs, while grants may support useful technologies that the agency will never purchase.

A recurring allocation can make innovation support less dependent on individual officials choosing to protect it each year. Distributed across relevant agencies, it could open more routes for CDR developers working on energy, land management, materials, waste or measurement. Clear access for smaller firms can help research-intensive suppliers build prototypes and technical teams without immediately selling equity. A partnership allocation can connect those firms with university expertise and laboratories. The resulting technology development still needs a deliberate route into demonstration, verification and later commercial demand.

Agencies may meet the percentage by renaming routine work, narrowing the spending base or making weak awards near the year's end. A rigid formula can also divert money from higher-value research when there are too few suitable applicants. Eligibility rules may exclude capable firms as they grow or favour businesses organised to win repeated awards rather than commercialise. Fragmented agency calls can duplicate technical work, and partners may dispute ownership of inventions. Most importantly for CDR, early research funding can produce promising prototypes without the removal purchases or infrastructure needed to sustain deployment.

Budget authorities should compare each agency's eligible spending base, required allocation, actual awards and unspent balance, with audits of what was counted. Evaluation should examine which firms and research partners participate, whether projects reach technical milestones, and whether subsequent finance, demonstrations or purchases follow. CDR portfolios should report evidence on net-removal potential, durability, resource use and measurement improvements appropriate to the research stage. Results should inform topic selection, award sizes, application requirements and any revision of the allocation, rather than treating expenditure of the full percentage as success.

Legislators and finance ministries should agree the allocation formula and the agencies responsible for it. Agency mission teams should identify research problems they can usefully support, while grant and procurement officers choose lawful award routes. Small firms and research institutions can test eligibility, application burden and partnership terms. Technology-transfer specialists should clarify ownership and commercialisation rights. CDR experts, verifiers and prospective users should help define meaningful technical milestones, with communities and environmental specialists contributing before funded work progresses to field demonstrations.

The implementing authority must control the budgets and obligations of the agencies covered. National legislatures have a clear precedent in the US Small Business Innovation Research and Technology Transfer requirements. Supranational budget authorities, regional or state governments and municipalities can apply the same rule to research and innovation budgets they control, subject to their appropriation powers. Subnational allocations would usually cover fewer agencies or narrower operational needs. Recipient firms and research institutions implement funded projects but cannot impose the agency allocation.