The course is offered to the States Parties and Signatory States of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) mentioned in the DAC List of Aid Recipients, Part I, Developing Countries.
The courses are intended for qualified candidates from Member States with economies that are developing or in transition. In particular, women are encouraged to apply for the course. The program is intended for persons who are or are going to be involved with the National Authority to the Chemical Weapons Convention. The part of the training course concerning the National Authority (NA) familiarizes the trainees in annual practical routines of NA, including the inquiries made to the local industry and the declarations made to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). The NA training also familiarizes the trainees in routines during inspections. The aim of the chemical database training is to introduce various databases and libraries which can be utilized for the verification tasks of the CWC. Training includes lectures as a self-study modules and practical exercises with computers.
The first aim of the National Authority (NA) training is to familiarize the trainees in annual practical routines of NA, including the inquiries made to the local industry to locate the declarable activities, questionnaires to collect national declarable activities and the declarations made to the OPCW. A training session of the latest version of the electronic declaration tool for National Authorities (EDIS) and introduction to the Secure Information Exchange (SIX) system for preparing and transmitting declarations to the OPCW is included in the course program.
The second aim of NA training is to familiarize the trainees in routines for receiving and escorting OPCW inspections.
The third aim of NA training is to familiarize the trainees in legislative issues required for national implementation of the CWC.
The aim of the chemical database training is to introduce various databases and libraries which can be utilized for the verification tasks of the CWC. Training includes lectures and practical exercises.
The program is organized by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland and the Finnish Institute for Verification of the Chemical Weapons Convention, VERIFIN. The practical conduct of the course is assisted by experts from the Technical Secretariat of the OPCW.
All the candidates for the Training Course on National Authority and Chemical Databases should have
· Good working knowledge of the English language as all the work during the course will be conducted in English;
· Priority will be given to applicants that have or will have an affiliation to the National Authority to the CWC;
· Experience in administrative issues concerning chemicals;
· Practical experience with computers and the Microsoft Windows environment.
· Internet connection for downloading the materials and for communication via e-mail
Training Course on National Authority and Databases: 31.8.-10.9.2026
· National Authority (NA) (4 days)
· Duties of the NA, declarations, inspections, legislative issues, Chemical databases, OPCW database, transfer discrepancies and the use of internet (4 days)
The OPCW experts provide general lectures on the CWC, legislative issues, EDIS and SIX in the NA part of the program.
Training course related e-mails should be sent to
The applicants should apply with REDCap if possible. If the participants are unable to apply through REDCap, please contact VERIFIN through emails below.
The candidates provide the following information, in English, with REDCap:
· Personal information (name, email, phone number, date of birth, nationality)
· description of previous and current activities related to National Authority
· a CV in free form (mandatory): professional career, details of academic and scientific work
· Approval letter from the national authority, organization or superior, if possible
REDCap is widely regarded as a safe and secure platform for conducting surveys, especially in academic and clinical research. It uses strong data encryption (both in transit and at rest), ensuring that sensitive information is protected from unauthorized access. Only administrators have access to personal data. The data is deleted from the server after the selection of participants is made.
The applications should be presented before June 15th, 2026.
It is the wish of the organizers to select twenty (20) participants from as many different countries. However, if this cannot be achieved, more than one participant from a same country will be considered.
There is no limitation to the number of candidates to be presented by one country. However, in the case of more than one presented candidate per country, the order of preference of the candidates should be clearly stated.
The selection of participants for the Training Course on National Authority and Chemical Databases will be made after the end of June and the selected participants will be informed on their selection during July 2026 by e-mail.
The organizers expect that the selected participants will confirm duly their participation by contacting VERIFIN immediately after receiving the e-mail.