During the early 1970s, ECOSOC established a Committee on Science and Technology for Development which provided a special political forum for the results of ACAST’s (Advisory Committee on the Application of Science and Technology to Development) work within the United Nations and brought the discussion to a more political level. The new Committee addressed issues ranging from capacity-building to technology transfer and the development of an international technological information system. Already at its second session in 1974, it addressed the possibility of holding another major United Nations conference in the area of science and technology for development. (UNCTAD, 1997:6)