Institutions consider R&D strategic alliances an alternative way of generating innovation. Among the capacities that can contribute to alliance success is one called relational (RC), that is, a strategic alliance management construct with research gaps that have not yet been verified empirically investigated, such as whether experience with repeated or diversified partners can potentiate, in a distinct way, R&D alliances that have greater emphasis on research or development. Thus, the objective of this study is to verify how experience with repeated and diversified partners can potentiate the strategic R&D alliances that have a greater emphasis on research or development. The qualitative research was based on ten interviews. Data triangulation and content analysis were used to analyze the data. Three strategic alliances established between EMBRAPA and external partners constituted the corpus of analysis. It was concluded that the institutions involved in alliances, through experience with repeated partners, potentiated the RC in alliances focused on development activities, while that experience with multiple partners potentiated RC in alliances with focus on research activities.