The aim of the project is to create interest for the common European heritage of the Industrialisation and its legacy.
Four countries, Great Britain, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands successfully applied for EU Interreg IIC (North-Western Europe) funding to draw up a master plan.
In the language of EU proposals the hubs are called anchor points; these could be cities or existing industrial sites with a developed tourism infrastructure.
[2] The plan culminated in the Duisburg Declaration [a] With the plan adopted its implementation was funded by Interreg IIIB-north-western Europe, and the scheme rolled out; starting in the northwest and progressing south and east.
The route leads through 13 countries thus far (in 2014): United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Czech Republic, Poland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Portugal (in 2017).