Protective nanocrystalline transition metal nitride coatings are widely used in the machining industry to enhance tool lifetime. During operation, cutting tools experience severe thermo-mechanical loading, especially at the cutting edge in contact with the workpiece. Most studies focus on coatings deposited on flat substrates, neglecting microstructural and compositional gradients near cutting edges caused by spatially inhomogeneous deposition conditions. This gap exists due to the lack of characterization methods capable of assessing such gradients at the micro- and nanoscale. The CuttingEdgeNanoMat project aims to correlate deposition conditions with nanoscale gradients in microstructure, stresses, composition, and mechanical properties at cutting edges. It also seeks to develop new coating concepts to improve tool performance and durability. The study focuses on nanocrystalline AlxTi1-xN and AlxCr1-xN coatings deposited using chemical and physical vapor deposition techniques.