HECTOR project promotes a powerful transnational collaboration (Luxembourg, France, Italy, and Spain) among academic and research institutions of the highest international level, triggering dedicated actions in the fields of heritage, culture and sustainable tourism, incorporating innovative elements in its development and implementation. Heritage management is a highly interdisciplinary field, involving methodologies and approaches from various disciplines: the capacity to predict future skills needed in this sector endowed with extraordinary potentialities and anticipate trends will allow to up-to-date competencies and professional profiles within a public and private context. In particular, the Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe represent the perfect opportunity to test and share good practices on innovative strategic skills related to Heritage Management and Cultural Tourism. The HECTOR initiative aims at comparing practices and developing models to forecast the skills needs in cultural management related professions, as well as at designing, implementing and supporting effective coordination between the world of formal and not formal training (Universities, research centers, vocational institutions and organizations active in cultural heritage promotion). HECTOR intends to be in line with the EU general effort to invest on cultural and creative players with skills, competencies and know-how that contribute to strengthening the cultural and creative sectors, including encouraging adaptation to digital technologies, testing innovative approaches to audience development and testing of new business and management models. Moreover, the project addresses the complex issue of defining/identifying the strategic skills and reflect on transversal skills as an "ability to apply knowledge and use know-how to complete tasks and solve problems" (Cedefop 2010a: 109:110). The transnational project will tackle this challenge by pursuing the following operational objectives: O1. Identifying emerging “hard” and “soft” skills set, related to the new challenges addressing Heritage Management in Europe. O2. Validate a cross-country and cross-sectoral methodology for participatory need analysis in order to better cope the learning outcome and the teaching methods to dynamic re/up-skilling requirements. O3. Integrate MOOC solutions involving both academic and professional sector in order to generate a permanent open repository for innovative self- training and self-assessment. O4. Test peer-to-peer training and skills evaluation, by generating software-based tool. O5. Consolidate a common understanding on how to mix not-formal and formal learning in order to upgrade the competencies of heritage professionals. O6. Create a Virtual Learning Hub for Heritage and Cultural Tourism based on the valoriszation of the resources of the 29 Cultural Routes certified by the Council of Europe Choosing the most appropriate vehicles for addressing learning and development needs involves an iterative process of research, consultation and analysis. HECTOR therefore envisages to develop, test and adapt innovation-led solutions, multi- and interdisciplinary approaches and methodologies with a dedicated focus especially on those delivering transversal competences, entrepreneurship mindset and creative thinking, fostering at the same time a more strategic and integrated use of ICTs and open educational resources (OER) by the involved education and training systems. The project outcomes and results will be available not only for the target groups who will be directly participating, but also other potential beneficiaries will be reached (thanks to the impressive and fruitful networks of each involved partner) in order to build bridges and share knowledge between the different formal and informal education and training sectors.