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The Associazione Italiana Traduttori e Interpreti, founded in Biella, Italy in 1950, is a non-profit professional association of translators and interpreters. It is a founding member of the International Federation of Translators and a founding member of CEATL (the European Council of Associations of Literary Translators).

AITI is organised into a Presidency, a National Governing Council and 12 regional sections. The Association's members are either freelance or in-house translators and interpreters. Potential members must submit an application form together with their educational qualification (diploma or university degree) and a documented curriculum vitae. Translators must pass an entrance examination. Applicants with a diploma must have between 3 and 6 years of experience depending on the type of diploma held, while those with a university degree must have between 1 and 2 years of experience.

AITI's main purposes are to: 

• promote collaboration with translation and interpreting schools;
• promote the continuing professional training of translators and interpreters;
• promote the collection and dissemination of information on the profession;
• safeguard the economic and legal interests of its members;
• promote legislation that recognises a legal professional status for translators and interpreters and strengthens translators' copyright in their work.

Until 1999, AITI celebrated St. Jerome Day by organizing a special ceremony, where the Association awards its St. Jerome Prize for Translation, now deferred, either to a literary or a sci-tech translator. Three subsections have recently been added to the main category, establishing prizes for translators of children's books, publishers and critics or reviewers of translated books.

The Association is represented in all ministerial and interministerial committees that deal with issues related to the profession. It is also part of the CNEL Council of Unregulated Professions. AITI has also taken part in the drafting of Parliamentary bills regarding the profession.

AITI also replied to the call for "Expressions of interest to participate in the negotiations for the new convention for interpreters" issued by European Institutions (European Parliament, Commission and Court of Justice) and was the only Italian Association admitted to the negotiating table.

AITI was the first association in Europe to tackle the issue of quality assurance in translation and the application of the ISO 9000 standards. It was also represented on the Joint Committee for the drafting of the UNI 10574 standard for the quality certification of firms offering translation and interpreting services. The Association also collaborated with the Ministry of Finance on the drafting of the questionnaire for the category within the framework of the Ministry's sector studies and recently formed part of the working group of the Ministry for Universities for the review of the curriculum for translators and interpreters.

In the area of professional training and skills updating, the Association organises conferences, seminars and roundtable discussions at both the local and national levels and is a member of AssITerm (the Italian Terminology Association). The Association's work is carried out through committees and working groups that deal with the various aspects of the profession. Of these, an especially important role is played by the Training Committee and the Terminology Committee. AITI has also appointed a software tester to assess translation products.

Since 1995 AITI has been a partner organization in the European Project "Edition électronique, livre et arquives" initiated by the Council of Europe.

Since 1996, AITI has actively participated in the FIT POSI Project. It has created a National Posi Committee which concluded its work in 1998 when it produced a Final Report and established a committee composed of representatives from all groups with an interest in translation issues (professionals, training schools, firms, government, publishers, students) with the aim of collecting and analysing data for the preparation of a document (forthcoming) that will identify the effective needs of a constantly evolving multilingual market and offer a series of proposals to enhance the practical orientation of training programmes for translators and interpreters.