On September 1, Robert Inklaar has taken over as director of the Groningen Growth and Development Centre (GGDC) from Marcel Timmer.

Marcel served as director for over 10 years, during which he oversaw the rise of research on global value chains, including the development of the World Input-Output Database, as one of the main pillars of the Centre's research. He, more generally, helped the Centre gain increased academic recognition and prominence. His position, since September 2019, as deputy director of the Netherlands Bureau for Economic Research (CPB), has decreased his involvement in day-to-day activties at the GGDC but he will continue to play an active role in the Centre and its research agenda.

Robert has been part of the GGDC for 20 years, with his research focusing on the measurement and determinants of productivity and welfare. This research is partly reflected in the recent versions of the Penn World Table. In the upcoming years, the involvement of the GGDC in the STEG programme on structural transformation, the newly-founded UK Productivity Institute and other major international projects will help to further extend the research agenda of the GGDC.