The vast majority of research collaboration among firms is informal. Unfortunately, little research has focused on informal, multi-institutional research collaboration, partly because by their very nature these collaborations are difficult to study systematically. In this study, we employ case study methodology to examine a large-scale research collaboration, the 2000 Texas Air Quality Study, which could be labeled ‘multi-sector, multi-institution’ and ‘informal.’ We develop the case based on a contingency model of research collaboration effectiveness, our chief objective being to assess the impact of various characteristics of the collaboration on the project’s outcomes. We find the case to align with the terms of the model, thereby distilling some implications for a theory of research collaboration effectiveness, at least within the domain of large-scale, multi-institutional, multi-sector research collaborations.