The bilateral research project, funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), focused on the development of modules in the field of ESD that were designed for use in Chinese elementary schools, as well as the training of multipliers who supported the school development processes accordingly.

Experts from the Teacher Training Centers of the city of Shanghai and the Zhejiang province, researchers from East China Normal University and Zhejiang International Studies University (ZISU) as well as teachers from 20 selected project schools from both provinces were involved in the development of the project, which ran from 2015 to 2017. A steering group from the University of Passau provided scientific, the Hanns Seidl Foundation organizational support.

This initial development phase is currently being followed up with preparatory work for a transfer to Yunnan Province.