In his recent article on Scienzainrete, Pier Mannuccio Mannucci mentioned it as a positive example. The Gruppo 2003 also cited it as a good practice in its Manifesto for a scientific research revival in Italy. What we're talking about is the evaluation system adopted by Telethon to fund research projects.
Take a behind-the-scenes tour of the world's largest collection of wasp
nests with James M. Carpenter, entomologist and curator in the Museum's
Division of Invertebrate Zoology. The Museum's Hymenoptera collection
includes more than 1,200 paper nests made by social wasps, as well as
the 7.5 million-specimen gall wasp collection donated to the Museum in
1958 by the widow of Alfred C. Kinsey.
The primary focus of Dr.
Carpenter's work is the wasp family Vespidae, a group of nearly 5,000
described species that encompasses the most sophisticated societies
