This is excellent news. I found this part interesting:
*Help, with your input, to identify major gaps in the Wikipedia materials or pages that need improvement; *Compile a list of linguistics pages that Wikipedia editors have identified as "in need of attention from an expert on the subject" or " does not cite any references or sources," etc;
This shows that the various, often maligned maintenance tags we use in wikis actually can become the core of funding proposals.
I don't personally believe the Wikimedia Foundation should be in the business of paying professionals to edit content on our projects, but at the same time, I think that when done by a neutral, independent third party and managed professionally, this could open up _huge_ opportunities for our projects.