In order to be successful in global health today, all the long-established European tropical research institutes had to undergo a transition which can be described as “hunter-gatherer” and descriptive approaches during colonial and postcolonial times to a deeper understanding of infection biology and finally to public health interventions from which populations at large can benefit. During the 1980s and 1990s, the Swiss Tropical Institute (today: Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Swiss TPH) based in Basel too has changed its focus from individual medicine to a public health context. This article does not present new scientific data but takes a historical perspective. Its aim is to highlight the above-mentioned transformation by focusing on selected malaria research-cum-action interventions during the crucial period of the 1990s, which were tailored to the social-ecological settings where the disease was endemic. In order for this transformation to be successful, we intend to emphasise the importance of (i) having a fundamental understanding of local transmission; (ii) building and nurturing relationships with partner institutions; and (iii) developing a coherent research portfolio as key elements for researching and applying evidence in malaria control and elimination as part of national malaria control programmes.

为了在今天的全球健康方面取得成功，所有历史悠久的欧洲热带研究机构都必须经历一个可以被描述为殖民和后殖民时代“狩猎-采集”和描述性方法的过渡，以更深入地了解感染生物学和最后是公众可以从中受益的公共卫生干预措施。在 1980 年代和 1990 年代，位于巴塞尔的瑞士热带研究所（今天：瑞士热带和公共卫生研究所，瑞士 TPH）也将其重点从个体医学转向了公共卫生环境。本文不提供新的科学数据，而是从历史的角度出发。其目的是通过重点关注 1990 年代关键时期选定的疟疾研究和行动干预措施来突出上述转变，这些是针对疾病流行的社会生态环境量身定制的。为了使这种转变取得成功，我们打算强调以下几点的重要性：（i）对本地传播有基本的了解；(ii) 建立和培育与伙伴机构的关系；(iii) 开发一个连贯的研究组合，作为研究和应用疟疾控制和消除证据的关键要素，作为国家疟疾控制计划的一部分。