The phrase "a year to devise" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used when referring to the time required to create or plan something, often in a formal or project-related context.
Example: "The committee was given a year to devise a comprehensive strategy for the upcoming election."
Alternatives: "a year to create" or "a year to formulate".
It was given a year to devise a low-cost machine.
It took the federal government more than a year to devise a policy in answer to this thirst for freedom.
It took MarketInvoice's founders — who were still working for banks — almost a year to devise the business plan, and a further six months to raise $1.4 million from investors.
First, you fail to note that New York state's highest court began by interpreting the state constitution and giving elected officials a year to devise a reform plan consistent with this interpretation.
Orbitz needed more than a year to devise a system to process that much information within the span of a typical online air fare search, but its efforts paid off nicely.
When the duo returned to the BBC in 1970 after a spell at ITV, they asked for him to be executive producer of the light entertainment show they were to make together, so he was taken off all other projects for a year to devise and oversee the first series of The Two Ronnies, which aired in 1971.
They met each year to devise a joint list of spending priorities, presenting a united front to the Appropriations Committee, where Mr. Dorgan long held a post on the agriculture subcommittee.
In Houston, school district officials introduced a test score-based evaluation system to determine teacher bonuses, then — in the face of massive protests — jettisoned the formula after one year to devise a better one.
A lot; it took almost two years to devise a kind of blueprint.
But AstraZeneca – set to lose patent protection on 50% of its revenues in the next five years – has given its scientists a deadline of three years to devise novel treatments in this notoriously difficult field.
But, in a cautionary tale for New York, it has taken the state 10 years to devise a program generous enough to the poor districts to be acceptable to the courts.
