Reykjavik, Iceland | THE INDEPENDENT & AGENCIES | The sphere’s focal level will next week flip to Iceland as the Nordic island nation hosts events of the The Younger Inventors Prize 2025, the set up 17 vibrant minds—two Ugandans included—will be well-liked.
The Younger Inventors Prize 2025, location for June 18th in Reykjavik, will hang time the groundbreaking contributions to the sector of 10 inventions. Making the tip 10 are Ugandan entrepreneurs Sandra Namboozo (26) and Samuel Muyita (27), founders of Karpolax.
Karpolax is a plant-based sachet that extends the shelf lifetime of recent fruit by as a lot as 30 days. Per consultants, their sustainable, biodegradable preservation solution helps SDG 2 (Zero Starvation) by lowering put up-harvest losses and SDG 12 (In cost Consumption and Production) by promoting sustainable meals preservation practices.
Namboozo and Muyita both grew up in farming households and saw firsthand the challenges of put up-harvest losses, which hang a devastating impact on the income of tiny-scale farmers. Particular to search out a pure and additional reasonable various to artificial preservatives, they developed sachets, which liberate a mix of plant-derived unstable organic compounds (VOCs) to unhurried ripening and stay spoilage.
The compounds—extracted from cloves, lemongrass, eucalyptus, and wintergreen—inhibit ethylene production, the pure gas to blame for fruit ripening, and provide security against mildew, fungi, and bacteria. Their solution permits for the managed, sustained liberate of these compounds, tailored to various fruit forms, thereby providing a biodegradable various to old man made preservatives.
Pilot checks conducted with Uganda’s Nationwide Agricultural Evaluate Organization (NARO) confirmed that mangoes kept with the sachets remained recent for 33 days, while these with out them lasted easiest 11 days. The sachets hang since been successfully mature on bananas, apples, and oranges. With an cheap label level, Karpolax’s sachets are in particular suited to smallholder farmers and native markets, offering a price-effective and within the community accessible procedure to decrease meals break and prolong earnings.
Namboozi and Muyita hailed
Uganda’s broken-down High Minister Amama Mbabazi has hailed the Ugandans for their invention.
“Proud second for Uganda! Congratulations to Sandra Namboozo and Samuel Muyita, Makerere College graduates, whose plant-based, biodegradable sachet that preserves fruit has earned them a space within the High 10 finalists for the 2025 Younger Inventors Prize by the European Patent Reveal of job. Your innovation is a triumph of creativity and motive,” he mentioned on X this week.
He added, “To all young Ugandans: let this be your inspiration—dream substantial, direct boldly, and be the solution our world desires.”
The Younger Inventors Prize celebrates worldwide innovators 30 and beneath using skills to tackle global challenges posed by the United Countries Sustainable Improvement Dreams (SDGs).
At some level of the ceremony, their work will be showcased before revealing the winners of the special prizes: World Builders, Neighborhood Healers, and Nature Guardians. Organizers could also stammer the Folk’s Various winner, among the best prize determined by public on-line vote casting that is ongoing (CLICK right here to vote) .
Karpolax solution made in Uganda
Namboozo and Muyita met while finding out at Makerere College in Kampala, the set up they fleet bonded over a shared ambition to decrease meals break. They launched Karpolax in 2020 and impartial to develop its reach at some level of Africa, focused on Kenya, Rwanda and past.
“Farmers are undoubtedly one of our biggest buyer groups. We wished to consume our knowledge and technical abilities to assemble one thing that would per chance well no longer accurate cease on a paper in a lab but truly be mature by somebody,” explains Namboozo.
“Starting from zero, or no longer it is crucial to provide that funding yourself. We had some supervisors from the college who supported us and made us feel assured that lets be triumphant,” added Muyita.
Regardless of the regular prolong within the global population, round 40% of all meals produced does no longer reach the market, in conserving with the World Wildlife Fund.
By 2023, Karpolax had already labored with over 100 farmers, 20 exporters, and 250 market distributors. The firm is now expanding its product line to encompass sachets for pineapples, capsicum, and berries.
Regarding the Younger Inventors Prize
Per an announcement from the organiers, the European Patent Reveal of job (EPO), the ten distinctive innovators were chosen by an self sustaining jury from over 450 talented candidates
Aimed at participants 30 and beneath, the Younger Inventors Prize showcases the transformative vitality of early life-driven alternatives and recognises the mighty children paving how one can a extra sustainable future. Established in 2022, trophies were first handed out at some level of the European Inventor Award ceremony.
From 2025 onwards, the Prize will wander up a gear with its hang dedicated occasion, held individually from the Award. Among the ten Tomorrow Shapers chosen for each and every edition, three will be awarded a certain prize: World Builders, Neighborhood Healers, and Nature Guardians. As neatly as, a Folk’s Various winner, voted by the general public on-line, will be published. Each and every Tomorrow Shaper will receive EUR 5 000, the three special prize winners will each and every receive an additional EUR 15 000. The Folk’s Various winner will be awarded an additional EUR 5 000.
EPO President António Campinos emphasized the significance of the Younger Inventors Prize, pointing out, “Younger inventors are the architects of a brighter tomorrow, bringing recent perspectives and courageous alternatives to the sector’s most daunting challenges. By celebrating their achievements, we no longer easiest honor their ingenuity but to boot underline the transformative vitality of applied sciences and science in shaping a sustainable future and exciting generations to reach.”
🟥The ten Tomorrow Shapers
✳ Extending the shelf lifetime of recent produce: Ugandan entrepreneurs Sandra Namboozo and Samuel Muyita created a biodegradable sachet that slows fruit ripening, lowering meals break and supporting smallholder farmers.
✳ E-break tackling alternatives thru paper-based digital application parts: Austrian industrial clothier Franziska Kerber developed dissolvable parts for devices such as routers, enabling more uncomplicated restoration of treasured metals.
✳ Sustainable aviation sealants: Filipino aeronautical engineer Mark Kennedy Bantugon developed an plane sealant made from discarded Pili Tree resin, offering a extra sustainable and no more toxic various to many recent sealants.
✳ Revolutionising rare earth recycling: French-American chemist Marie Perrin pioneered a process to extract europium from discarded fluorescent lamps, making its recycling more uncomplicated and no more toxic.
✳ Taking pictures pollutants and bettering air quality: Colombian entrepreneur Mariana Pérez designed a Suppose Air Seize intention that eliminates CO₂, nitrogen dioxide and sulphur dioxide from the air, enabling captured pollutants to be remodeled into biodegradable materials.
✳ AI-designed enzymes for enterprise and healthcare: Lithuanian researchers Laurynas Karpus, Vykintas Jauniškis and Irmantas Rokaitis co-developed an AI-powered platform for designing recent enzymes tailored for biomanufacturing and pharmaceutical, amongst various applications.
✳ Dapper labels to decrease meals break and meals poisoning: Spanish inventors Pilar Granado, Pablo Sosa Domínguez and Luis Chimeno created biodegradable fascinating labels that video show meals freshness in true-time, serving to decrease pointless meals break.
✳ Carbon seize for transport: Engineers Alisha Fredriksson (Sweden/UK) and Roujia Wen (China) constructed a modular carbon seize intention that binds CO₂ into solid limestone pellets, lowering emissions for recent ships.
✳ Turning break CO₂ into very crucial fibres: US scientists and twin sisters Neeka and Leila Mashouf developed a process to rework industrial CO₂ into cellulose pulp for sustainable, biodegradable materials, amongst various applications.
✳ Smarter semiconductor manufacturing: Slovenian researcher Teja Potočnik developed an automatic platform to facilitate the create of nanomaterial-based semiconductor devices, paving how one can next-skills microchips and electronics.
