Understanding tensions within a university campus Living Lab adopting a quintuple helix model

University Campus Living Labs (UCLLs) are emerging as hybrid experimental spaces for addressing complex socio-ecological challenges, yet their implementation reveals a range of structural tensions. This article explores how such tensions manifest in CaLiLab, a UCLL established at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland. Drawing on qualitative data from focus groups, interviews, and secondary sources, we apply and expand the place–approach–network framework by incorporating the dynamic dimensions of time and scale. Our analysis highlights three interrelated domains where tensions unfold: the spatial configuration of the campus, the divergent methodological orientations of interdisciplinary research teams, and the complex stakeholder landscape, including the natural environment conceptualised through the Quintuple Helix model. We show how conflicting temporalities, institutional rigidities, and ontological mismatches between social and ecological goals challenge the implementation of inclusive and adaptive Living Lab practices. Rather than treating these tensions as obstacles, we argue they are productive frictions that shape the co-creative process, demanding ongoing negotiation, reflexivity, and learning. By tracing how tensions evolve, this research-in-progress contributes to a better understanding of how UCLLs can support socio-ecological transitions and what governance structures and capacities are required to do so effectively.