  The current activity of the SPARC_LAB test-facility is focused on the
realization of plasma-based acceleration experiments with the aim to provide
accelerating field of the order of several GV/m while maintaining the overall
quality (in terms of energy spread and emittance) of the accelerated electron
bunch. In the following, the current status of such an activity is presented.
We also show results related to the usability of plasmas as focusing lenses in
view of a complete plasma-based focusing and accelerating system.
