Chemists from developing countries have been trained since 1990 under funding of MFA. The training is based on research and experience on the CWC.
By the end of 2020, VERIFIN has trained 1619 experts from 140 countries.
The courses are offered to the States Parties and Signatory States of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) mentioned in the DAC List of Recipients of Official Development Assistance (ODA).
NACD Course (8 days)
Course on National Authorities and Chemical Databases. The duties of national authorities (for the CWC) are discussed: legislative issues concerning the national implementation of the CWC, collection of data, declarations and inspections. The end of the course concentrates on different sources, where data useful for the national authorities can be found.
Requirements: Post at or Close contact with the National Authority for the CWC
CW-LSE courses (2 weeks each)
CW-LSE courses on LC-MS, NMR, Laboratory Quality Assurance and Quantitative Mass spectrometry, Laboratory Skills Enhancement for the Analysis of Chemicals Related to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CW-LSE) courses are a series of two-week courses with similar structure and aim in the different aspects related to the chemical weapons analysis. The basic idea of the CW-LSE courses is to give thorough training on certain topic already partially familiar to the participants. The courses consist of lectures on theory and practice, demonstrations, exercises, maintenance of the equipment and often a test to show the level of the learning. The focus is on the hand-on training.
Fellowship (3 to 6 months)
A CWC-related project work at VERIFIN under the OPCW Fellowship support program. The actual subject of the project will be agreed on by the intern and VERIFIN.
NACD
All the candidates for the Training Course on National Authority and Chemical Databases should have
Announcement for postponing the Training Course on National Authority and Chemical Databases (NACD-course)
Due to various international and national restrictions caused by the corona pandemic we have decided to postpone the NACD-course from 11-20 August 2020 to 4-13 November 2020 assuming that pandemic situation allows us to carry out the course during the new date.
Updated Invitation for Governments to present candidates to apply for the NACD-course will be send to Member States through the OPCW. Applications received so far by VERIFIN are valid for the course planned to be held in November. However, we will need confirmations from all applicants who have send their application for the original NACD-course planned in August that they would be able to participate in the NACD-course in November. Due to the change of course date the deadline for applications was extended to 5 June 2020.
Participants for the course selected!
All teaching is arranged by VERIFIN and takes place in the buildings of the Kumpula Campus (Chemicum, Physicum or Exactum), University of Helsinki, Finland.
The Organizers will provide, according to their established rules, free of charge:
The financial conditions apply to the participant only. If members of his/her family follow, all the costs incurred and visa arrangements will have to be covered by the participant of the sending government.
Laboratory Capacity Building Programme (LCBP)
Laboratory Capacity Building Programme is funded by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland.
In the Laboratory Capacity Building Programme the focus is in enhancing analytical capabilities of certain laboratories. Laboratories commit themselves for the training programme for three years and the actual training takes place both at VERIFIN and at the recipient laboratory.
The LCBP was arranged first time in 2012 with laboratories from Ethiopia and Kenya and the this first cooperation project was finished at the end of 2014. The contracts with laboratories from Ethiopia and Kenya were continued for the period 2015-2017. The programme for 2018-2020 is done in collaboration with laboratories from Kenya and Nepal
US Grants
Tailored courses releated to the Chemical Weapons Convention and the courses are funded by US department of state.
The training consists of three parts. In the first part the VERIFIN experts makes a planning trip to each laboratory to be able to plan the training to meet the recipient’s needs. In the second part the trainees come to VERIFIN for an intensive, tailor-made training. In the last part the VERIFIN experts travel to target countries to perform the final evaluation of the impact of the training.
Other activities
Tailored courses