This paper analyses the respective place of subsidized versus non-subsidized R&D cooperation within the strategy of technological agreements of companies. We argue that additional resources provided by government subsidies foster the creation of ambidextrous co-operation agreement portfolios. Subsidized co-operations tend to be more exploratory than the latter, which are closer to exploitation activities. We formulate a series of theoretical propositions which differentiate the two types of agreements from one another according to two distinct organizational logics in terms of incentive, coordination and learning mechanisms. The set of propositions are then challenged by analysing them with the EDF R&D partnership strategy.