A research team had developed a technology for combatting a mosquito-borne tropical disease. The disease sickens 100 - 400 million people each year, and costs US$3.5 billion in lost productivity in low-income countries. No effective treatment was available.

The team at the Eliminate Dengue program (now the World Mosquito Program) needed to share the technology across countries with different cultures and languages. This is sometimes called the “Grandest Challenge”. They also needed to capture insights from workers so that they could improve the technology and ensure it worked in all settings. The technology was a multi-stepped process, which made uptake even more challenging.

Rachel Nowak & Associates developed the concept for a digital platform for sharing and capturing knowledge across diverse settings. A team was assembled to deliver the platform.

Ten years on, the platform, now called Catalyst, is still used to share knowledge about the technology across the tropics.