The BBC will look for digital companies in the north to deliver upto four projects with a total budget of £500,000 for CBBC and CBeebies as part of a new pilot scheme.

The @North scheme will encourage and support the development and delivery of interactive content for children by companies in the north of England.

There will be upto four projects with a total budget of £500,000 available for commissions by CBBC and Cbeebies.

BBC Children's has been selected to lead the pilot programme as it gears up to be one of five BBC departments to move to Salford in 2011.

The corporation said the key objectives for the project are:

For CBBC andCBeebies to tap into new opportunities for innovation and creativity.

To stimulate and inspire the digital sector across the North of England, initially focusing on creating new children's content.

To understand and help develop the supply chain across the North for the BBC and build on existing creativity and skills.

To make the BBC North process for commissioning multiplatform content open and collaborative.

To share knowledge about the BBC's infrastructure, processes and audiences.

The BBC said it intends for @North to provide a blueprint of how BBC North can work more openly in MediaCityUK and will involve more BBC division partners as it develops.

Peter Salmon said: "This is an exciting new concept and there is real business up for grabs, with CBBC and CBeebies commissions to be won by creative organisations working on interactive media across the north of England.

"There is some great creative work going on in the digital sector across the north and we want to work in partnership to develop new and exciting multiplatform content for our young audiences."

The BBC is inviting independent companies and digital agencies in the north to send expressions of interest in the @North project to Mario Dubois, project lead – mario.dubois@bbc.co.uk.