When upscaling novel techniques for Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR), public attitudes are crucial, yet there is a serious lack of social science research outside of Western nations. CDR research can clearly benefit from maximising inclusion and opening up to diverse perspectives, including those of local communities, and ideally should involve public insight into the questions we should be prioritising. This paper reports results from a major deliberative study on public perceptions of CDR in Malaysia. We demonstrate a novel, transferrable methodology called “Question-Led Innovation”, in which lay public and local stakeholders are empowered to ask actionable questions on a novel intervention or innovation. These questions are then used as the basis for identifying priorities for future scientific research. We apply the methodology to a case study of CDR via Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW) on tropical palm oil agriculture in Sabah.