The Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV) was born from the unification of public research institutions in the field of geophysics and volcanology. In the first twenty years from the foundation law of 1999, the INGV has seen a remarkable development, alternating moments of expansion, with significant increases in funding and number of employees, with long periods of stagnation. During these years the number of people hired with fixed-term contracts has grown, also to meet the needs of seismic and volcanic monitoring of the Italian territory, carried out on the basis of agreements with the Department of Civil Protection. After twenty years, it's time to outline a picture of the present situation and the evolutionary process that determined it. With this objective, the...