In developing new products and solutions as well as improving on existing ones, GF works across national borders with other companies, with universities and with renowned institutes. Cooperation with research and scientific institutes enables GF to tap into a wealth of ideas and unleashes creative potential in the Corporation's own ranks. GF Piping Systems cooperates with the Technical University in Aachen in the field of plastics, different Fraunhofer Institutes, as well as the EMPA, the materials science and technology research institute in Zurich. And GF Automotive, for instance, works closely together with the Technical Universities in Aachen, Vienna, Clausthal and Leoben, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich and with the Konstanz University of Applied Sciences. GF AgieCharmilles cooperates with the Federal Institutes of Technology in Zurich and Lausanne and with the Catholic University in Louvain, Belgium.