HERITAS_research brings the technologies developed under the CHANGES project to industrial maturity (TRL 8), integrating generative artificial intelligence, augmented and virtual reality, SaaS platforms, and advanced digitization systems for museums, archives, and cultural sites. The solutions developed range from LLM-based virtual museum assistants to HTR/OCR systems with over 95% accuracy for historical manuscripts, from digital twins of architectural elements to collaborative platforms for sustainable cultural tourism. The approach is radically participatory and focused on universal accessibility, with solutions designed to break down physical, cognitive, and cultural barriers to accessing heritage. HERITAS_pole creates an innovation hub structured around four specialized thematic nodes—museums and digital collections, archives and linguistic heritage, AI for cultural heritage, and communities and territorial development—providing services, shared infrastructure, and entrepreneurial support to transform research results into concrete market solutions. The Hub offers permanent workshops, specialized consulting, licensing and patenting pathways, and support programs for the creation of new innovative businesses in the cultural and creative sector. HERITAS_skills trains the “smart middle class” of the cultural sector through modular training programs tailored for SMEs, with a focus on digitization, entrepreneurship, and technology transfer. The courses—which can be combined for a minimum of 60 hours—are designed based on direct feedback regarding business needs and combine theoretical sessions, practical workshops, and individualized mentoring, aiming to strengthen the competitiveness of southern Italian SMEs in the digital and green transition of the cultural sector. In HERITAS_research, EHT is developing IMR 4 DST (Multimedia and Augmented Reality Itineraries for Digital Storytelling): recommendation models based on the psychological profiling of visitors and immersive digital storytelling tools to promote Sicilian cultural heritage along the Via Francigena routes. The solutions are brought to TRL 8 through field tests that measure their cultural impact, level of inclusion, and user well-being, with the goal of making them scalable and adoptable by cultural institutions and tourism operators. Within the HERITAS_pole, EHT leads External Scouting & Matchmaking activities—systematic mapping of specialized funders, organization of thematic demo days, support for licensing processes and startup formation—and coordinates the Co-Design Tables for the four Hubs of the Pole, applying Design Thinking methodologies to define the evolutionary roadmaps of the services. EHT also contributes to the DigiTell service, the Pole’s offering dedicated to multidisciplinary digital storytelling of cultural heritage. In HERITAS_skills, EHT delivers the FORM-ENTREPR-HERITAS module, a program dedicated to entrepreneurs, researchers, and professionals in the cultural sector who intend to transform scientific results into market solutions. Topics covered include business model development, intellectual property protection, fundraising techniques, and preparing pitches for investors. EHT is also responsible for designing the training content it delivers directly and for the analytical monitoring of results, contributing to the system for evaluating the overall impact of the training.