The Danube area is characterised by rich tangible & intangible cultural heritage, diversity and territorial imbalances. Both to safeguard and develop heritage, to enable sustainable tourism thus contributing to economic prosperity, and to strengthen cohesion joint forces to fully develop the potential of transnational cultural routes are needed. These routes have important integrative power and put themselves forward to touristic exploitation. Relating to the progresses made within the CoE’s “Europe Enlarged Partial Agreement on Cultural Routes”, the project therefore aims at implementing an innovative multilevel policy framework for cultural routes. Along the way the EUSDR is an important milestone for transnat. cooperation. Now concrete activities based on a participative governance approach are needed in order to exploit cultural heritage to its full potential. Culture & tourism ministries, competence centres, regional authorities and NGOs, united in a culture policy network, develop an integrated transnational policy strategy (“Danube Creative spaces of the 21st century”) including strategies for Danube cultural routes and a feasibility and implementation plan for a small project fund. This policy-making process is based upon studies mapping existing routes, hidden heritage sites, and evaluating their touristic potentials, and concrete experiences for innovative approaches to cultural heritage using ICT and artistic interventions. In result the project will turn traces of history into a contemporary cultural routes strategy, acknowledging the sustainable cooperation of culture and tourism. Main target groups are local, regional and national public authorities, organisations of higher education and research and other interest groups including NGOs. The project invites them to common policy-making (participative governance), stretches the umbrella for their strategies and policies and explores financial tools and delivers a network for their future cooperation.