Developers from entertainment company XPT caused a Web sensation with Online Caroline, which invited computer-users to help a fictional 27-year-old travel writer through her life and loves.

The pioneering series attracted thousands of emails from Caroline’s fans, and won a BAFTA award.

Now its creators are working on Online Jemma, an educational version of their earlier hit which is being funded with pound;90,000 from the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA).

The 12-part interactive drama will focus on physics student Jemma as she copes with her studies, boyfriend problems and other distractions at university.

Writer Tim Wright and director Rob Bevan said the series would be aimed at 11 to 18-year-old girls who would receive personalised emails and text messages from Jemma and watch her latest adventures on Web cameras.

The pair said the programme would be accessible to any school with an Internet connection and would challenge perceptions that scientists were all “geeky” men in white lab coats.

Mr Wright said: “There will be a bit of physics in the stories, but it won’t be university-level - we might get her explaining her relationship problems in terms of magnetism.”

Online Jemma is due to be filmed shortly at the University of Bath with a professional actress in the lead role, and is expected to be launched online in October.

The project is one of 10 new initiatives worth more than pound;1.5 million which were unveiled by NESTA this week.

Other schemes include a study on the best ways to use interactive whiteboards in the classroom, and a virtual reality arts project for young people with physical disabilities.