Direct air capture keeps just 29% of researchers active by 2025

This chart tracks DAC researchers over time on a diverging axis. Above the line are researchers who published a DAC-relevant paper that year (active); below the line are dormant researchers, split into those who published the previous year and those who published only earlier. New entrants join at the base of the active band each year as a teal block. DAC is direct air capture, the most capital- and headline-heavy pathway. The top envelope is the number actually publishing in the pathway each year.

The useful pattern is how the active band and the dormant floor compare. DAC currently stands at 1,184 active in 2025 — only 29% of members, the lowest retention of any pathway. Younger pathways show a steep active band over a shallow dormant floor — the people who arrived are still there — while older or broader ones carry a much deeper dormant pool of past one-time contributors. Watching the top envelope over the years shows whether the pathway is still recruiting and keeping researchers.

Read the active envelope, not the total height. At yearly resolution a skipped publication year reads as “dormant” and a later paper as a return, so the dormant bands overstate permanent exits. The working figure for DAC is the top line each year, and its slope over 2021–2025 is the real signal.

What the chart shows today

1,184 active DAC researchers in 2025 is the number to sit with - just 29% of everyone who has ever published in the field, the worst retention of any pathway on the census. The pattern is a classic tourist trap: a wave of one-paper visitors arrived around 2021-2022, dipped a toe in, and moved on, leaving the dormant line climbing while the active line flattens. Meanwhile the directory lists 125 DAC companies competing for that same shrinking pool of committed specialists. If you are hiring in DAC, the headline author counts flatter you; the real talent market is roughly a third the size it looks, and everyone else knows it too.

Chart refreshed from our CDR Company Directory. We publish a data-viz read like this twice a week.