We examine the tensions that make it difficult for a research-oriented university to achieve commercial outcomes. Building on the organisational ambidexterity literature, we specify the nature of the tensions (between academic and commercially-oriented activities) at both institutional and individual levels of analysis, and how these can be resolved. We test our hypotheses using a novel dataset of 207 Research Council-funded projects, linking objective data on project outcomes with the perceptions of principal investigators. Results show that the tension between academic and commercial demands is more salient at the level of the individual researcher than at the level of institutions.