The examination of the value of science has always been very important. At the Medici's court in Florence, in order to decide the value of Galileo's discoveries, at the Louis's XIV court in France and at the Charles's II court in England, in order to establish if there could exist an Académie des Sciences or a Royal Society and to decide its privileges; at the end of the XIX century, when Pasteur and others in France, Helmholts and others in Germany and the Endowment of Science Movement in Great Britain asked for the government's support to promote the science; until the creation of national centers for scientific research (as in France and in Italy) and of national funding agencies (as in USA, in the United Kingdom and in many other nations).

[from "Evaluating the science'' by A. Rips]

Today more than ever, the assessment of research is a device essential for quality control, for the enhancement of human capital and a precondition for accountability to the public. Research assessment is a mindset embodied in methods, tools and knowledge. In a word, it is a culture.

The following are among the ends of the Research Assessment Unit at FBK:

To collect, organize and maintain all data pertaining the research output of the Foundation, making them readily available to the FBK community and the public at large;

To provide timely, fact-based representations of FBK's positioning in the global landscape of research, also reporting on comparative assessments with other international centers and labs;

To assist the FBK's governance in any decision for which the evaluation of research is crucial. In particular, to organize and manage peer-review exercises;

To coordinate the participation of FBK to national research assessment campaigns;

To closely monitor the evolution of research evaluation models, methods and tools, also trying their applicability to the FBK environment;

To communicate the values and merits of research assessment, raising the awareness on its ethical implications. To strengthen connections with other dimensions of evaluation.