According to the complexity and the uncertainty in selecting cooperative partner of virtual research center (VRC), a novel evaluation model based on support vector machine and fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (SVM-FAHP) was proposed. The partner selection for the Yalong River hydropower development VRC was presented as an example and a comparison with the previous models was performed. It's showed that SVM-FAHP model can combine qualitative analysis with quantitative analysis effectively, improve classification precision and select the best partner for VRC objectively.