To strategically exploit open innovation, many companies continue to expand their research collaboration with universities to boost the novelty and speed of innovation development. Recently, literatures propose various sets of criteria for selecting universities as partners but the research on practicality and generalizability of such applications are still limited. This explorative study reveals how managers apply the criteria from literature into practice for their industry-university collaboration. The structured interviews were conducted and the quotations were extracted to obtain common criteria. The result of case study reveals that both systematic and traditional approaches are applied in partner selection. With a systematic approach, the academic databases and partner profiles are used along with expert judgement to support the decision whereas a traditional approach relies on trust which emerges from collaboration experiences and personal connection.