Want some fame and fortune? Here's a shortcut to that route - make a high-tech condom for Bill Gates's Microsoft Foundation.

The foundation announced on Friday $100,000 prize money under its Grand Challenges in Global Health programme for designers who could make condoms that preserve or enhance pleasure, easier to use, more attractive packaging and anything to make men actually want to put one.

Mr Gates noted that while condoms save lives, they are not used to the maximum because many men prefer to have sex without using them, in the process exposing them to higher risks for STDs and unplanned pregnancies.

The $100,000 is just icing on the cake for there is an additional funding of up to $1 million in a bid to revamp the half-a-century old condom technology.

"We are looking for a Next Generation Condom that significantly preserves or enhances pleasure, in order to improve uptake and regular use. Additional concepts that might increase uptake include attributes that increase ease-of-use for male and female condoms, for example better packaging or designs that are easier to properly apply. In addition, attributes that address and overcome cultural barriers are also desired. Proposals must (i) have a testable hypothesis, (ii) include an associated plan for how the idea would be tested or validated, and (iii) yield interpretable and unambiguous data in Phase I, in order to be considered for Phase II funding," the Gates Foundation said in a statement.

The foundation will accept proposals until May 7 and the winner will be selected by the Gates Foundation and an independent panel of reviewers.

For more information, visit http://www.grandchallenges.org/Explorations/Pages/ApplicationInstructions.aspx

This is not the first Gates Foundation initiative on HIV/AIDS. Here is a quick look at what the foundation had done in the past few years.

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