"devoted great effort" is a correct and usable phrase in written English.
You can use it whenever you want to emphasize that someone worked hard on something. For example: "He devoted great effort to his studies and eventually graduated with honors."
For decades, scientists have devoted great efforts to improve the efficiency of IC engines in deliberating of many different approaches.
Indeed in the last years the scientific literature has devoted great efforts in addressing this issue; many contributions provide an accurate distinction (synthetic, analytical, simulation models) and description of different methodologies (see [10, 11, 12, 13] or [14]).
Blending philosophy, psychology, personal anecdote, movies, literature and neuroscience, How We Are shows vividly how remaining stuck in our ruts – "saming", Deary calls it – isn't merely a failure to act, but something to which we subconsciously devote great effort.
People who come from backgrounds suffused with love, praise, and security often have the ability to dismiss criticism out of hand; people who don't, especially if they're as smart as Rove, often devote great effort to building structures of refutation.
We often have multiple ends in view in particular activities, ends not plausibly delineated by a single particular sphere of activity; for example, a high school student may devote great effort to developing his abilities in football both for the sense of accomplishment and pleasure he receives from excelling in competition in the sport and also in order to win a scholarship to college.
The Democrats will devote great efforts to turning that coalition out again in 2014.
In response to the Haaretz report, the Israeli military said in a statement that it "maintains an ongoing, professional dialogue with the community leadership and security personnel throughout Judea and Samaria while devoting great efforts to training local forces and preparing them to deal with any possible scenario".
In a statement the IDF said: "The IDF maintains an ongoing, professional dialogue with the community leadership and security personnel throughout Judea and Samaria [the West Bank] while devoting great efforts to training local forces and preparing them to deal with any possible scenario.
The United States and Europe are devoting great efforts to creating jobs.
"The European commission should phase out all land-based biofuels by 2030 and devote greater efforts to promoting sustainable renewables such as solar, wind, geothermal and tidal".
