The water sector faces complex sustainability challenges – from cascading climate change effects, to enabling digital transitions, or emissions reductions – all which require collaboration across scientific and societal actors. Providing safe and sufficient water is becoming more complicated than before – and water utilities need to adapt their services and collaborate with other societal actors such as water boards, municipalities and farmers to enable collective solutions that work for all. Transdisciplinary collaboration offers an approach where these actors across disciplines and sectors can co-create knowledge to address such complex challenges.