Due to the high-power density of RDCs compared to other combustors, cooling is one of the most predominant challenges to steady operation because of the high heat loads generated by the combustion process. The presence of a detonation wave/boundary layer interaction and a small annulus width lead to a very high heat transfer when compared to conventional GT combustors. Film cooling is one the most effective techniques to keep combustor wall at safe temperature levels and recently some fundamental numerical studies have been carried out to explore its applicability at RDC. The objective of this research is to provide a first practical validation of film cooling process in an actual RDC. A baseline film cooling scheme will be applied at the RDC test rig installed at TUB, starting from numerical results achieved in the INSPIRE project. Measurements will provide validation data for high-fidelity CFD modelling which will be carried out starting from the best practices developed at UNIFI based on AVBP code. The validated CFD modelling will then be used to explore possible optimization of film cooling process, by investigating different hole patterns and hole shaping at different levels of coolant mass flow. This effort will be supported by ML techniques for the development of a virtual chemistry mechanism capable of handling both regimes of detonation and deflagration combustion necessitated by the additional reactions occurring due to injection of film cooling air. The film cooling process will not only be optimized in terms of thermal performance, but the additional air injected as coolant will also be analysed as post-detonation oxidizer to improve overall combustion efficiency. Film cooling jets and cool air / gas mixing towards the exit of the combustor will eventually also play a role in damping main flow unsteadiness at the inlet of the transition duct. These last two aspects will be the base of strong interactions with DC06 (TUB) and DC07 (CERFACS).