The activity of the SPARC_LAB test-facility (LNF-INFN, Frascati) is currently focused on the development of new plasma-based accelerators. Particle accelerators are used in many fields of science, with applications ranging from particle physics research to advanced radiation sources (e.g. FEL). The demand to accelerate particles to higher and higher energies is currently limited by the effective efficiency in the acceleration process that requires the development of km-size facilities. By increasing the accelerating gradient, the compactness can be improved and costs reduced. Recently, the new technique which attracts main efforts relies on plasma acceleration. In the following, the current status of plasma-based activities at SPARC_LAB is presented. Both laser- and beam-driven schemes will be adopted with the aim to provide an adequate accelerating gradient (1–10 GV/m) while preserving the brightness of the accelerated beams to the level of conventional photo-injectors. This aspect, in particular, requires the use of ultra-short (<100fs) electron beams, consisting in one or more bunches. We show, with the support of simulations and experimental results, that such beams can be produced using RF compression by velocity-bunching
