Expert Panels have been used for some time to evaluate the performance of university research centres in the UK. The work of all the UK research centres is monitored quantitatively and periodically evaluated by expert panels. In their evaluation, the experts take into account indicators (e.g. number of publications) but also purely qualitative elements (e.g. quality of each researcher's four best publications). The evaluation results in a classification of the research teams (on a scale of 1 to 5 now a star rating). The allocation of public funds is directly related to this classification (Bone & Carter, 1997)