Chancellor Linda Katehi returned this week from a trip to Madrid, where she explored the potential of a proposal to build a branch campus of the university near the Spanish capital.

The chancellor and a small delegation from UC Davis discussed the concept with more than a dozen Spanish business leaders, educators, philanthropists and government officials at a meeting hosted by U.S. Ambassador Alan Solomont.

“We are a great match because, like you, we have a bold and innovative vision for the future,” Katehi told the gathering. “Like you, we aren’t waiting for opportunity to happen. We are making it happen.

“Together we would make high-impact discoveries and develop next-generation technologies in a partnership that would benefit society, both locally and globally.”

Katehi said UC Davis is assessing whether there is a workable financial model: She said the Madrid campus would have to be a self-supporting campus, there would need to be sufficient Spanish and European investors and there would need to be sufficient student demand.

The chancellor was joined in Spain by John Meyer, vice chancellor for Administrative and Resource Management; Harold Levine, dean of the UC Davis School of Education; and Katehi’s husband, Spyros Tseregounis, who is a faculty lecturer in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science. Levine has been the university’s point person on the project.

The idea of building a satellite campus in Spain was first broached more than a year ago, when a Madrid-based education-consulting firm approached UC Davis on behalf of a Spanish investment holding company.

At the time, several other U.S. research universities were being courted as potential partners in a project in which a Spanish company or companies would design, develop, build and maintain a campus that would be leased or rented to a U.S. university.

Different investors have since approached UC Davis and proposed four possible sites, all in or near the greater Madrid metropolitan area.