I wonder if it would be possible to create a Think Tank that actually produces ideas, instead of laundering wishful thinking? This could be constructed as a consortium into which companies pay money. The output would be in the form of reports. The idea is to give the money going in a bit of "Platonic Amnesia."
This is a function that Universities used to perform.
SRI International http://sri.com is a non-profit research institution. It does contract research for just about anyone. Of course, DARPA and other government agencies are a very big customer, but you can buy some time from them if you want. They are arguably less influential now than in their cold-war prime,but they still have some good people. You may know of Shakey the robot and the STRIPS planner which are landmarks in AI research. Recently they lost some top robotics people to Willow Garage, a new robotics think tank that is funded by a very rich early Googler.
Reports are the anathema of the profession. Research is critical for reasoned discussion. But once you add political machinations people don't want reason. There are entirely too many winner takes all games played on the backs of the people. Do we really need 'regulated monopolies' providing energy? Or 29 for-profit multinational companies owning the entire electrical grid? Something's afoot!
That's the existing market. It also makes sense, businesses generally don't behave altruistically. Perhaps approaching businesses at all is a mistake, maybe wealthy individuals, social-angels per se.
It's not that businesses don't behave altruistically. It's that humans are usually too short sighted to be willing to pay for honest research of that depth.
This is a function that Universities used to perform.