In recent years the main European governments have given increasing importance to perfor-mance-based research funding systems, namely the assignment of funding on the basis of the ex-ante evaluation of the proposals submitted to a public call and ex post evaluation of the results produced by the organizations of research. Compared to the other countries, Italy stands out for a solid anchorage to institutional funding of historical type.
Keywords: Performance-based funding, research evaluation, research funding, ex-ante evaluation, ex-post evaluation.