Since 1976, Rolex has honoured extraordinary individuals who possess the courage and conviction to take on major challenges. Every two years, the Rolex Award for Enterprise is given to five (5) individuals for a new or ongoing project anywhere in the world – one that deserves support for its capacity to improve lives, or protect the world’s natural and cultural heritage. These projects have touched all aspects of humanity by expanding knowledge or improving life on the planet.
On November 15 2016, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles California, Rolex marked the 40th Anniversary of the awards and I was named a Rolex Young Laureate and winner of the Rolex Awards for Enterprise in applied technology category for “Chowberry”, a cloud-based service which provides an affordable source of food intake for disadvantaged demographics through a web and mobile based value exchange service.
Details on the Rolex Website: http://www.rolexawards.com/explore/timeline#2016 and http://www.rolexawards.com/profiles/young_laureates/ekponimo_oscar
The relationship with Rolex Philantrophy has blossomed through the years through programs in the context of communication of sustainability around the world and its mission of supporting the Spirit of Enterprise.

The World Frontiers Forum unites global leaders with pioneering creators across frontiers from contemporary art to biology. Established around annual gatherings around the world, staring in Cambridge Massachusetts, the forum aims to bring original pioneering works and dream learning into the lives of millions to help catalyze and translate frontier discovery that improves the human condition. The future exists in our collective hope that it will.
Chowberry joined the World Frontiers Forum in the fall of 2018 via its annual gathering which took place in Cambridge and Boston, Massachusetts on October 14 and 15, between Café ArtScience near MIT & Harvard Business School. The program will started on Sunday, the 14th, and will ended with a magnificent ocean sustainability dinner on Monday evening the 15th.
Founder of Chowberry Oscar Ekponimo was named Young Pioneer by WFF, MIT and Harvard Medical School
Beyond the incredible members and pioneers at frontiers ranging from contemporary art to biology, World Frontiers Forum has several young pioneers joining with ambitious collaborative ideas called the Convergence Project.
During the WFF experts working at the frontiers of Science and Technology where on hand to work with the amazing young pioneers to help their Convergence Project take shape with the aim of jointly achieving sustainable traction with the encouragement of leadership from the United Nations and guidance from partners such as Global Good.

From our collaboration with the World Frontiers Forum, we were honoured to work with Prof. Robert Langer of Langer Labs at MIT and his team to push the frontier convergence project forward.
Our collaboration began via the 2018 Convergence Project (The Chowberries) which aimed to integrate novel low-pH sensitive delivery forms of Vitamin A, developed in the research lab of MIT professor and WFF co-founder Robert Langer, into fruit, vegetable and other food forms produced locally.
The second challenge of sustainable food development globally relates to the degradation of ocean ecosystems related to many factors including human food consumption, ranging from over-fishing to plastic waste, largely associated with food packaging. “The Chowberries” a nutrition bite food form that incorporates new pioneering discoveries aims to integrate its novel micronutrient delivery systems into unique edible packaging technology developed by Harvard professor and WFF co-founder David Edwards and based on the sustainable ocean food source of algae.
Among the tallest of sustainable development needs is that of accessible, balanced, daily nutrition. Deficiency in micronutrients — essential vitamins and minerals needed for balanced growth and development — affects approximately two billion people globally according to the WHO. Vitamin A deficiency particularly is the leading cause of unnecessary blindness. In Sierra Leone, Vitamin A deficiency is estimated to touch over 80% of children under five years of age. Obstacles to the integration of Vitamin A and other micronutrients into the natural food supply includes protecting the micronutrients from degradation before they act in the body — or become bioavailable.

Incredible Foods is a food technology company founded by Harvard Professor David Edwards pioneering the future of food. Products by the company currently sell in USA stores.
Our collaboration with Incredible Foods is to design, clinically evaluate, and produce ChowBerries” as healthy snacks for children — initially in the Sierra Leone school system and eventually throughout Africa —made of garri cores with fruit skins inside tapioca (cassava root) containers. The snacks will contain a unique combination of soluble iron, enhancers, protectors, and microbiome stabilizers to achieve efficacy in anemic children with acceptable side effects.In-school screening of anemic children will identify children who will receive ChowBerries with/ without iron fortification. Long term Chowberries aims to reach African children with healthy nutrient dense snacks that improves their health, nutrition access and general wellbeing.
Chowberry being part of the World Frontiers Forum Convergence Project is collaboraring with Incredible Foods through its charitable donation of its edible packaging breakthrough food technology discovery to create nutrition bites known as “ChowBerries” Chowberries are fruit, vegetable and cassava root finger food forms surrounded by a grape-like skin comprised of a bilayer formed by alginate and chitosan polysaccharides.

The skin of the food bites provides an effective barrier to water and oxygen transport, permitting high moisture content, which facilitates rapid dissolution in the mouth and distribution of active material. Of relatively low water content, the skin further permits the incorporation and stabilization of key enhancers of iron absorption such as vitamin C, which can lose stability in high water-content foods via oxidation.
The skin also permits the stabilization of pre- and probiotics that can help counter gastrointestinal side effects of unabsorbed iron. ChowBerries may also incorporate unique Basic Methacrylate Copolymer (BMC) stabilized iron that has been demonstrated to preserve iron stability on the shelf and in high-stress conditions prior to eating as in boiling. BMC can also reduce unwanted sensory changes that occur during fortified food storage (the presence of fortified iron in certain foods can cause rancidity and subsequent off flavors), food preparation and cooking