The IWH-CompNet 1st ProdTool Workshop (26–27 February 2026, Vienna) successfully brought together experts, policymakers, and researchers for two days of insightful discussions on productivity, firm dynamics, trade, energy, and microdata access within the MDI framework

The workshop was co-organised by IWH-CompNet, the Oesterreichische Nationalbank, the Austrian Productivity Board, and the European Union, which funds this project through the Technical Support Instrument. We are grateful for the strong collaboration and excellent organisation that made this event possible.

Resources: Explore the workshop summary and the programme.

Day 1

Opening Statements by: Dr. Wolf Reuter (OeNB), Stratis Kastrissianakis (SG REFORM), Filippo di Mauro and Javier Miranda (IWH-CBPD, IWH-CompNet)

Common Report Chapters Presentation:

Chapter 1: Productivity Dispersion (Andreas Reinstaller, with input from Janez Kušar, Michael Kogler, Janne Huovari and Juuso Vanhala)

Chapter 2: Business Dynamics (Leon Betterndorf)

Chapter 3: Scaling, missing middle, and growth persistence (JP Fabri)

General Discussion on Chapters including Data update (NSIs) led by Carlo Altomonte

Module Presentation:

Module 1 - Trade by Ashim Dubey

Module 2 - Firm Dynamics by Alberto Ferreira

Module 3 - Energy by Marcelo Piemonte Ribeiro and Fatih Ozturk, OECD

MDI extensions and other possible modules (NPBs) discussing research ideas NPBs (Austria, Netherlands, Spain), UK research ideas (ESCoE), intangibles (MDI team), defense readiness (MDI team) & others

Day 2 

Keynote – Micro data access the experience of CASD by Kamel Gadouche (CASD) 

Session 1: Spain’s Experience and Future Engagement in the MDI Framework - an intervention by Juan Francisco Jimeno (Bank of Spain) 

Session 2: Technical Capacity Building: What NPBs and NSIs need and want? Introduction by Reetuparna Vishwanath (IWH-CompNet)

Session 3: Promoting concrete interaction between Eurostat-MDL and MDI - an Intervention by Nikola Sunjka (Eurostat)

Session 4: Creating an effective NPB network: The role of country officers, lessons learned and other issues, wrap-up & next steps, summary of key takeaways and sext steps and the timeline.

This workshop marked an important milestone in the ProdTool project, presenting the outcomes of two years of collaborative work carried out under this EU-funded initiative. We would like to express our sincere gratitude to the European Commission for its continued support.