Sustainable school development projects depend on effective transfer and implementation strategies on school and system level (van Holt 2014; Hall et. al 2006). On system level sustainability of school development projects relies on the successful dissemination of effective strategies that help to support a larger group of schools in their development process (Gräsel 2010; Rogers 2003). Cooperation between different players in the educational system can be considered as a good starting point to archive sustained development on system level (Rogers 2003). However systematic knowledge about effective transfer and implementation strategies and the specific tasks of the partners that are involved is needed. The research and school development project “Developing Potentials – Empowering Schools” focuses on the close cooperation between science (Universities Duisburg-Essen and Dortmund) and educational administration (State Institute for Schools – QUA-LiS NRW) with regard to its knowledge management and transfer strategies. Additional partners are the Mercator Foundation, 36 schools in difficult areas and the Ministry of Education in North- Rhine Westphalia. The paper discusses the question, which strategies and processes are beneficial for successful development in schools in socially deprived contexts and how these findings can be assessed for relevance to the overpass in sustainable and systemic structures. It draws on theoretical considerations and methods of knowledge management (Wilke 2004; Heitmann 2013; Probst et al. 2003) and implementation research (Petermann 2014). These methods allow a detailed and standardized documentation and analysis of transfer and implementation knowledge and help to find crucial factors and strategies for successful development. Identified strategies are led back to the administration that in a second step reconsiders options for the integration into systemic structures, such as the general training system for teachers. The papers data base contains semi- structured, content-analytically evaluated interviews with five school development consultants who accompany the project schools as external experts. The analytical results point out first relevant key factors and strategies for successful school development in disadvantaged areas. With view to transfer of knowledge, the roles and responsibilities of the various actors in the project are analyzed and discussed with regard to the question, weather the approach of “Developing Potentials – Empowering Schools” functions as an appropriate bottom-up strategy for the dissemination of successful development strategies for schools in challenging circumstances.

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