The study contributes to how transdisciplinary research collaboration can be designed to address the complexity of the human-technology nexus in the context of Industry 5.0 and to identify incentives from the manufacturing industry to engage in transdisciplinary research efforts. Engaged scholarship and work-integrated learning approaches are applied to integrate diverse research disciplines and active stakeholder engagement to address complex societal challenges. The methodology of this research is a qualitative case study, including workshops and focus groups with a project consortium of eight companies, with industry experts and university researchers. Findings contribute to transdisciplinary research collaboration viewed as an iterative continuous process including three phases for the process of reaching full potential of transcending disciplines and organizations. Contribution shows that industry highlights the need to address human challenges in smart technology adoption, motivating engagement in transdisciplinary research. Advancing smart manufacturing requires embracing creativity and innovation in the human-technology nexus. Further, transdisciplinary research collaboration needs to be based on trust, relationships, sharing, courage, mutual understanding and respect for each other's disciplines and expertise. The collaborative design accentuates the significance of transdisciplinary research in university-industry collaboration when moving forward with human-centric and smart manufacturing in line with the evolving Industry 5.0 paradigm