I really like OP's idea of giving lifetime annual grants to a lot of promising individuals to use it towards whatever they want. Since they are federally funded

I really like OP's idea of giving lifetime annual grants to a lot of promising individuals to use it towards whatever they want. Since they are federally funded, all their work should be eventually open sourced and patents expiring after X years. Universities and private companies can then compete to provide grad students/employees to these individuals in exchange for a fee or other revenue sharing arrangements. Not only can you save all the time writing grants, it can lead to interesting outcomes like individuals with grants banding together to collaborate on large projects. I don't know how to setup a repeatable process to identify such individuals though.