Investing in science and technology to uphold the Convention
The Centre for Chemistry and Technology – the ChemTech Centre – will be a recognised leader in research, analysis, training, and capacity building. It will be a flagship for the OPCW and its broader community and will significantly enhance the capabilities and standing of the OPCW as the global leader in the effort to rid the world of chemical weapons.
The Project
The OPCW Laboratory and Equipment Store was inaugurated in 1996 in the town of Rijswijk, which is just outside The Hague. Initially, the work of the Laboratory and Equipment Store focused primarily on supporting the OPCW’s demilitarisation activities and missions, routine inspections of industrial facilities for verification purposes, and international cooperation and assistance activities.
In recent years, however, the work of the Laboratory and Equipment Store has changed and grown significantly to reflect States Parties’ changing and growing requirements. Currently, these include responding to the emergence of new chemical weapons threats, which require the development of new and improved verification tools and expanded capabilities to conduct non-routine missions, and providing greater support for international cooperation and assistance activities.
The growing and evolving activities of the Laboratory and Equipment Store, however, have led to increasingly severe space constraints in the Rijswijk facility, which is a rented facility that has no possibility for expansion. Moreover, the facility’s infrastructure is aging as no major infrastructure upgrades have been undertaken since the OPCW’s arrival.
To meet the future needs of the Laboratory and Equipment Store, in 2017 the Technical Secretariat began to study options for upgrading their capabilities. Between September and November 2017, the Technical Secretariat prepared a report describing the need, initial estimated cost, and initial estimated timeline for a project to construct a new facility for the Laboratory and Equipment Store. The Needs Statement was presented to State Parties at the Twenty-Second Session of the Conference of the States Parties in November 2017, and the project to construct the new ChemTech Centre began.


Building for the future
The scope of the project primarily consists of the construction of the new ChemTech Centre, which will provide enhanced and enlarged facilities for the Laboratory, Equipment Store, and training, as well as the land and infrastructure required to accommodate and operate the building. The project scope additionally includes the decommissioning of the current facility in Rijswijk and the transition from this facility to the ChemTech Centre.
Budget & Timeline
The project has a budget of €33.5M that is exclusively funded by voluntary contributions to the ChemTech Centre Trust Fund.
Contributions
OPCW Director-General Fernando Arias expresses gratitude to all contributors to the project.
Contributor |
Amount |
Algeria |
€ 15,000 |
Andorra |
€ 16,000 |
Angola |
€ 25,000 |
Australia |
AUD 350,000 |
Bangladesh |
€ 13,339 |
Belgium |
€ 2,000,000 |
Cameroon |
€ 30,490 |
Canada |
CAD 10,000,000 |
Chile |
€ 13,000 |
China |
USD $ 30,000 |
Cyprus |
€ 45,000 |
Czech Republic |
€ 19,491 |
Estonia |
€ 10,000 |
Finland |
€ 100,000 |
France |
€ 1,400,000 |
Germany |
€ 1,500,000 |
Greece |
€ 30,000 |
Hungary |
€ 35,000 |
India |
€ 20,000 |
Indonesia |
Rp 165,000,000 |
Ireland |
€ 30,000 |
Italy |
€ 200,000 |
Japan |
€ 2,400,000 |
Kazakhstan |
€ 20,000 |
Lithuania |
€ 10,000 |
Luxembourg |
€ 17,000 |
Malaysia |
€ 10,000 |
Malta |
€ 10,000 |
Mexico |
€ 5,000 |
Morocco |
€ 15,000 |
Netherlands |
€ 2,300,000 |
New Zealand |
€ 200,000 |
Norway |
€ 24,349 |
Pakistan |
€ 10,000 |
Panama |
€ 5,000 |
Peru |
USD $ 10,000 |
Philippines |
USD $ 15,000 |
Poland |
€ 100,000 |
Portugal |
€ 40,000 |
Qatar |
€ 100,000 |
Republic of Korea |
€ 455,231 |
Romania |
€ 9,847 |
San Marino |
€ 1,000 |
Saudi Arabia |
€ 50,000 |
Slovakia |
€ 30,000 |
Slovenia |
€ 10,000 |
Spain |
€ 260,000 |
Sweden |
€ 38,319 |
Switzerland |
€ 283,262 |
Thailand |
THB 450,000 |
Türkiye |
€ 30,000 |
United Arab Emirates |
€ 100,000 |
United Kingdom |
€ 1,044,707 |
United States* |
USD $ 6,995,767 |
European Union |
€ 8,131,000 |
Israel, signatory |
€ 12,500 |
The American Chemical Society |
USD $ 10,000 |
The European Chemical Society EuChemS |
€ 1,000 |
German Chemical Society GDCh |
€ 1,000 |
International Centre for Chemical Safety and Security |
€ 5,000 |
Personal contributions |
€ 30,000 |
Royal Netherlands Chemical Society |
€ 2,500 |
Royal Society of Chemistry |
GBP £ 5,000 |
Total |
€ 34,572,589 |
*The project is partially sponsored by the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program of the United States Department of Defense. The content of the information in this article does not necessarily reflect the position or the policy of the Federal Government of the United States, and no official endorsement should be inferred.
Documents
Presentations
Title | Date |
---|---|
Brochure: OPCW ChemTech Centre Project Update, June 2022 | 30 June 2022 |
Brochure: OPCW ChemTech Centre Project Update, October 2020 | 6 October 2020 |
Video: OPCW ChemTech Centre construction progress – March 2023
See the OPCW ChemTech Centre construction progress through March 2023
Video: OPCW ChemTech Centre Construction Progress – November 2022
See the OPCW ChemTech Centre construction progress through November 2022
Video: OPCW ChemTech Centre Construction Progress – September 2022
See the OPCW ChemTech Centre construction progress through September 2022
Video: OPCW ChemTech Centre Construction Progress – May 2022
See the OPCW ChemTech Centre construction progress through May 2022
Video: OPCW ChemTech Centre Construction Progress – Feb 2022
See the OPCW ChemTech Centre construction progress through February 2022
Video: OPCW ChemTech Centre Construction Progress – Nov 2021
See the OPCW ChemTech Centre construction progress through November 2021
Video: OPCW ChemTech Centre
22 September 2021
Learn about the OPCW Centre for Chemistry and Technology, and how the OPCW and the international community use science and technology to uphold the Chemical Weapons Convention.