At the CFK Nord Research Center in Stade, PuK operates a joint research facility and the HPCFK research group in collaboration with the Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Machine Tools (Leibniz University Hannover) and the Institute for Aircraft Structures and Lightweight Construction (Technical University of Braunschweig). The goal of this interuniversity collaboration, which has been in place since 2010, is to investigate interdisciplinary solutions in the development of construction methods for composite materials in aircraft manufacturing, the fiber and matrix systems used for this purpose, and manufacturing technologies for automated and cost-effective production. Through ongoing collaboration with aviation industry companies based in Stade (Airbus, Hexcel, and others), the technological focus of the research activities has been on the automated fiber placement process for the manufacture of large-area structural components since the partnership was established.