MIMOS has been created from an initiative of a group of Italian operators in the simulation field; during an informal meeting held in February 2000 in Turin, they agreed on the opportunity to increase the knowledge on Modelling and Simulation in Italy by exchanging reciprocal experiences. The idea was to proceed with the creation of a National Association on Modelling and Simulation acting as a reference point for all Companies, Organisations and Users involved, in any way and form, in such a field.
 
The term Simulation is considered in a wide sense, including, besides the traditional training systems such as flight, driving and ship manoeuvring simulators, those, in quick development, related to Virtual Reality, Synthetic Environment and Virtual Prototyping, and to software modelling in the broadest applications.
The Association, born on March, 5th 2002, comprises members from Industry, Research Centres, Universities, and Military Organisations.
Beside their founders (Alenia Aeronautica SpA, Centro Ricerche FIAT, Cetena-Fincantieri, Datamat SpA, Euclida Logistica Ipercoop, No Real, Politecnico di Torino, S.I.A. Società Italiana Avionica, Università di Genova Dip. di Ingegneria della Produzione), MIMOS numbers many individual members and several Corporate Members (i.e. Organisation supporting the initiatives of the association

MIMOS’s Terms of Reference include:

- To promote the diffusion of the simulation culture in Italy, putting as a common factor the experiences and the knowledge of its members, facilitating, at the same time, the development of an adequate sensitivity on the advantages deriving from the employment of the related technologies.
- To thoroughly disseminate the information at national level, by means of dedicated events; acting, as far as possible, as a speaker in relevant international contexts.
- To facilitate the exchange of experiences and competencies among the members interested on a specific sector, encouraging the transferring of experiences between different sectors, identifying main areas of interest and developing partnership initiatives.
- To facilitate a more efficient dialogue between University and Industry on relevant topics, encouraging and promoting common initiatives; supporting University in the identification of educational and research needs in the simulation field.
- To facilitate a wider involvement of the Institutions, both civil and military, in the simulation field to develop useful applications to fulfil future requirements.
- To evolve as an Excellence Centre and co-operate with national and international agencies appointed for the standardisation and certification of methodologies, criteria and simulation tools, taking into account the quality system.

MIMOS Conference
Every year MIMOS organises its Technical-Scientific Conference.
Each edition intends to offer an overview on Virtual Reality and Simulation in Italy by means of a number of papers on a wide spread of application showing the current original and innovative experiences with an aye on the future.
 
MIMOS Award
MIMOS to promote an efficient dialogue between students and industry encouraging and making the most of young people who intend afford studies on simulation, modelling and virtual reality, announcing its award.
The free participation is reserved to university and master student at the last year of the course.
The participant shall present an original work (paper, experimental, etc.) on the simulation and virtual reality technology (more information visiting MIMOS web site.