In the UK the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) is being replaced by the Research Excellence Framework (REF); similarly, in Italy the former Research Evaluation Exercise (VTR 2001–2003) has been revised and extended and a new cycle of assessment was activated in Autumn 2011 (VQR 2004–2010). The analysis of the development and the consequences of both British and Italian assessment exercises is carried out on the basis of three theoretical frameworks – new public management (NPM), neo-institutional sociology (NIS), and organisational control theory (OCT). This last framework is crucial because the control systems have an effective sense-making capacity and it also exposes a different awareness about control systems in the British and Italian experiences.