It is widely expected that culture and heritage automatically inspire innovation and new creative entrepreneurship but research shows that this is rarely the case. It is therefore necessary to challenge and reinterpret the role of cultural and creative industries (CCIs) for regional development.

The SACHE project developed and delivered integrated local development strategies based on tools and approaches that accelerate creative entrepreneurship within and around cultural heritage. The project expanded and strengthened the role of cultural heritage sites, symbols and values by transforming them into “Smart Accelerators of Creative Heritage Entrepreneurship” (SACHE) based on a newly developed central European model.

Museums, galleries, theatres and festivals are conceived not only as sites of education or entertainment but also as accelerators, i.e. cultural engines that mobilise and nurture the energies of small creative businesses.  

This expanded access to cultural heritage as well as the production of value enhancing services, the development of innovative clustering of CCIs around each SACHE. It also helped to foster cross-sectoral cooperation with other industrial and service sectors especially in digital technologies.