Abstract The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), The National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine of the USA, the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, and the Brazilian Chemical Society held a workshop: “Innovative Technologies for Chemical Security”, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 3 to 5 July 2017. This event was part of a four workshop series held to inform the report of the OPCW Scientific Advisory Board on developments in science and technology to the Fourth Review Conference of the Chemical Weapons Convention, which will be held in November 2018. The workshop explored the potential of new technologies to enhance capabilities for the implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention. There is a continuing need for recognition that emerging scientific developments can have beneficial applications with respect to implementation of the Convention, particularly in prevention of re-emergence of chemical weapons. The objectives of this workshop were to present, discuss and critically evaluate the emergence and practical applications of new and existing technologies – as tools for detecting biochemical change in complex environments – and the applications of these technologies in support of chemical disarmament and chemical security. This issue of Pure and Applied Chemistry presents a series of papers that originate from topics discussed in the workshop. This preface describes the scientific review process for the Chemical Weapons Convention and how it was supported by the Rio de Janeiro workshop, as well as introducing the papers in the collection and their corresponding authors.