Perhaps the best thing that can be said about condoms is that they work. Once negotiated out of their crinkly wrappers, they reliably protect against pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV. They are simple to make, cheap to buy, and easy to obtain, whether you’re in Norway or rural Niger. Using a condom doesn’t require a prescription or a healthcare provider, and there are rarely any adverse effects—unless you consider the loss of pleasure, which, this being sex, matters a great deal.

On Wednesday, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced it was disbursing $1 million in grants for a next-generation condom that does the job without the perceived pleasure trade-off. “The undeniable and unsurprising truth is that most men prefer sex without a condom, while the risks related to HIV infections or unplanned pregnancies are disproportionately borne by their partners,” said Dr. Papa Salif Sow, a senior program officer on the HIV team at the Gates Foundation. “The common analogy is that wearing a condom is like taking a shower with a raincoat on. A redesigned condom that overcomes inconvenience, fumbling, or perceived loss of pleasure would be a powerful weapon in the fight against poverty."

Many of the grantees are tackling the sensation problem by turning to materials other than latex. Latex, which is derived from natural rubber, has been the industry standard since Youngs Rubber Company, the first makers of Trojan condoms, rolled them out in 1920. While the latex of today is a marked improvement over yesteryear’s rubbers, researchers say further advancements are unlikely. The only modifications now are further design flourishes, like texture and cherry flavor. The advantages of latex are chiefly its cost (low) and durability (strong enough), while the drawbacks are well-known: It smells, slips, is thick, and, for some, allergenic.

Materials scientists from the University of Oregon are using their $100,000 grant from Gates to develop an ultra-thin condom of a polyurethane polymer with “shape memory” properties. Think of something similar to shrink wrap that conforms to the shape of an object as it is heated. Now think of a penis: During intercourse, body heat would cause molecules in the condom to contract, molding it to the user. The material also would be thinner—about half as thin as current condoms—and twice as strong, says Oregon’s Richard Chartoff. As a bonus, antimicrobial nanoparticles embedded into the condom would guard against sexually transmitted diseases.

“The goal is to make a condom that has the same texture as human skin—you won’t even know it’s there,” said Jimmy Mays of the University of Tennessee, another grantee, who believes he can get there with thermoplastic elastomers, a stretchy, durable class of plastic he’s been researching for 25 years. Thermoplastic elastomers, which feel soft and rubbery, can flex for a longer period than latex without breaking and then recover their initial dimensions, making them a favored material in consumer products like toothbrush grips and iPhone covers. “I’m not a condom guy—I’m a polymer chemist, and our material was tailor made for this purpose,” he told me.