Funding Talent: Public or Private?

With his «Big Society» project, David Cameron hoped to restore power to local communities, empowering citizens and enabling civil society to re-appropriate certain social policies. Although some people see this as a gradual disengagement of the State, others see in it an empowerment of society that would allow the emergence of new ways of financing projects, without increasing public spending. This political choice leads to the question of financing the emergence of talent: must we rely only on the public system or should we now increasingly call on the private sector? What means must be implemented to support the international competitiveness of university systems and to finance continuing vocational training? What methods are the most appropriate for financing project sponsors?

Several models are developing around the world today: from Anglo-Saxon Business Angels to French-style public-private partnerships, taking in collaborative projects and the international successes of crowdfunding on the way, funding sources are diversifying. The question now is to know what model is the most appropriate.