As with its predecessor, the thrust of the ACP-EU Science and Technology Programme II is based on the conviction that one of the requirements for an effective fight against poverty in the ACP (African, Caribbean and Pacific) countries is the application of knowledge gained from science and technology (S&T) in order to promote innovation and ultimately develop appropriate technologies, which could be effectively deployed within the context of local needs and resources. In this perspective appropriate technologies are affordable, replicable and accessible technologies that can contribute to strengthen ACP countries’ and communities’ resilience towards internal and external shocks, such as the looming energy shortages, the effects of climate change and the rising food insecurity. At the same time appropriate technologies can contribute to the improvement of living conditions in villages and cities, while boosting family and business incomes by raising competitiveness. Against this backdrop the challenge for most ACP countries is not only to push themselves onto the frontiers of scientific knowledge, but rather to put readily available knowledge to use solving pressing social and economic problems. In this regard countries must build the capacity to find, absorb, and use existing technologies as well as to strengthen their own knowledge generation capacities. This entails creating appropriate policies and incentives, as well as building technical, vocational, engineering, entrepreneurial, managerial, and scientific capacities. For this reason ACP S&T II will support initiatives that strengthen the recognition of the importance of science and technology (S&T) for development, that produce innovation, that promote a scientific culture, that identify S&T goals and priorities, and that bolster national and regional capacities to formulate, manage, monitor, evaluate and disseminate S&T activities within and across ACP countries. However, in order to ensure complementarity with other EU initiatives in the field of STI, such as the Africa Call under the Framework Programme VII, the ACP-EU Research for Sustainable Development Programme, the Erasmus Mundus Programme and the Intra-ACP Mobility Scheme, the ACP-EU Science and Technology Programme II will neither finance research activities nor academic mobility.