The evolution of a galaxy is governed by the continuous interplay between its various components. In order to understand how galaxies form and evolve, it is therefore crucial to study the distribution and the properties of all their components and the links between them, both radially and vertically. The latter is only possible in edge-on galaxies. Moreover, edge-on galaxies are the only systems where the dust is seen both in emission and in absorption, making it possible to model their 3D dust distribution using reliable radiative transfer models. We present the HEROES project, an analysis of 7 nearby edge-on spiral galaxies, based on a multi-wavelength data set including optical, NIR, FIR and radio data. We combine a detailed determination of the dust distribution with 3D kinematical models of the gas content with the goal to measure the radial variation of the gas-to-dust ratio out to large galactocentric radii and to test the reliability of using FIR emission as a tracer for the total ISM distribution in galaxies.