The original Economics of Simulation Study Group members continue to receive requests for data and analysis results, and decision makers continue to ask for Economics of M&S information.  This Standing Study Group will update the data call, establish terminology and standards, advertise the need for new data, and post findings on a “permanent”, accessible web site.

The principal output of the previous Economics of Simulation Study Group included a data call and analysis of the data to that date.  That output has been used to success by SISO members throughout government, industry, and academia.  The University of Central Florida (UCF) in Orlando has used the data gathered for support of its graduate degrees in M&S, and UCF graduate students completed an annotated bibliography of the gathered data as part of their course projects.  Government studies of the Economics of Simulation in Sweden and Australia have requested and used data from the previous study effort.   A NATO M&S Group (NMSG) Task Group NMSG-031 has also used the output from the previous Study Group on the Economics of Simulation, and, in particular, a paper and presentation to the NMSG-031 in late 2005 was based on an updated analysis of the previous Study Group effort.  During the February 2006 M&S Leadership Summit to the Congressional M&S Caucus in Suffolk, Virginia, several times in multiple working groups, the need for definitive data on M&S ROI was requested.  Updated, definitive data and analyses are needed now to advance understanding of the topic and preserve perishable data.