The manufacturing industry is undergoing a profound transformation, driven by digitalization, robotics, and smart automation. While Industry 4.0 emphasizes technological advancement, Industry 5.0 introduces a complementary vision, accenting human-centric, sustainable, and resilient manufacturing. This shift acknowledges that successful adoption of smart technologies requires more than engineering efficiency. It demands a balance between human creativity, organizational culture, and technological innovation.

One promising way to navigate these complexities is through transdisciplinary research approaches. Transdisciplinary research goes beyond combining disciplines; it integrates knowledge from academia, industry, and society to tackle real-world challenges. In the context of smart automation, this means aligning perspectives from engineering, social sciences, management, and human factors to create solutions that are not only technologically advanced, but also socially sustainable. Transdisciplinary approaches can significantly aid in addressing challenges in human-centric smart automation by promoting collaborative and inclusive methods that combine diverse perspectives and expertise. Methods such as cross-company workshops, participatory action research, and demonstrator cases allow stakeholders to jointly identify challenges, experiment with solutions, and validate outcomes. Transdisciplinary collaboration is no simple matter and requires time, trust, continuity, and creativity. Though, successful transdisciplinary research approaches provide a frame, as vital as the actual technical innovation, where sharing, trusting, mutual understanding and respect between disciplines and organizations can thrive.

Industrial Work-Integrated Learning (I-WIL) serves as a bridge between academia and industry by blending theoretical knowledge with practical application. When combined with transdisciplinary approaches, I-WIL becomes a powerful driver for sustainable industrial transformation. I-WIL can be viewed as a facilitator to break down walls between academia and industry. Thus, I-WIL in this context refers to learning that takes place in an industrial context and that arises when representatives from both industry and academia meet and co-produce new knowledge. This approach enables universities and companies to recognize that knowledge exists not purely in textbooks or labs, but is created in the disordered real-world interactions between humans, organizations, and technologies.

The future of manufacturing will not be written by technology alone, but by the courage to collaborate across boundaries. Bringing forth transdisciplinary research approaches for human-centric smart automation paired with industrial work-integrated learning opens a pathway that empowers universities, industries, and individuals to co-create innovative solutions that are both resilient and humane.

Kristina M. Eriksson
Associate Professor in Production Systems
University West, Sweden

Anna Karin Olsson
Associate Professor in Business Administration
University West, Sweden

Fredrik Danielsson
Professor in Automation
University West, Sweden

Read more about the research:
https://www.hv.se/en/research/research-projects/production-technology/prowil—synergy–human-centric-smart-automation

Reference:
Eriksson, K.M., Olsson, A.K., and Danielsson F. (2025) Designing Transdisciplinary Research Collaboration towards Industry 5.0 to reach Human-Centric Smart Manufacturing, Journal of Integrated Design and Process Science. https://doi.org/10.1177/10920617251349546.