In this lecture we will present concrete cases of international collaborative research and interventions in global health. More concretely, we will look at the way the unit of intervention is conceptualized and redefined in a community-based randomized-controlled trial testing an innovative approach to malaria case detection in the Gambia; and how the traveling intervention model of “Mobile and Migrant Populations” or MMPs contrasts with field-based realities for malaria elimination in Central Vietnam. Using these examples, we will reflect on the tension between standardized interventions and the demands of local contexts.