Gonçalo Ribeiro wins the Youth Start-Up Competition 2025 with the FLASHGuard project
Selected from over 70 European projects, FLASHGuard won the public vote at the SME Assembly in Copenhagen
Developed at LIP within the Particles4Health group, FLASHGuard earned Gonçalo Ribeiro — a Fast Track PhD student at Instituto Superior Técnico (IST) — first place in the Youth Start-Up Competition (YSC) 2025. The project was presented at the SME Assembly, the annual event of the European SME Week dedicated to small and medium-sized enterprises, held this year in Copenhagen.
The 2025 edition of the Youth Start-Up Competition received more than 70 submissions from young European entrepreneurs. FLASHGuard was selected by the jury as one of the three finalists and ultimately won the competition after receiving the majority of public votes during the final session. “First of all, this recognition belongs to the whole team. It reflects the resilience, dedication and collaborative spirit of everyone involved,” said Gonçalo Ribeiro. “Receiving this distinction is an honour and a validation of the work we have been doing. At the same time, it motivates us to keep moving forward with determination towards our goals.”
FLASHGuard was created to enable the safe clinical implementation of FLASH radiotherapy, a treatment approach in which radiation is delivered within fractions of a second and may help spare healthy tissue. “FLASH radiotherapy is a very promising approach, but it presents several challenges, especially because the treatment is condensed into less than a second. One of the main challenges is monitoring the beam within this extremely short timescale. Our project applies particle physics expertise to this problem: as in other experimental contexts, we explore the Cherenkov effect, which produces light almost instantaneously when certain conditions are met. This light can be detected and converted into a signal, allowing rapid and precise measurement of key beam properties,” explained Gonçalo Ribeiro.
According to project coordinator Pedro Assis, this recognition “highlights the importance of the work we do at Particles4Health, where we bring particle physics knowledge into the development of improved healthcare solutions and new therapies. It encourages our team and reinforces the role of FLASHGuard as an enabling technology for these emerging treatments, which we hope to see integrated into new radiotherapy machines in the near future.”
The Youth Start-Up Competition recognises young entrepreneurs aged 18 to 25 who are developing innovative solutions with potential impact on Europe’s competitiveness. Candidates are evaluated by a jury composed of representatives from several European institutions supporting innovation and entrepreneurship.
The development of FLASHGuard took place under the supervision of Pedro Assis (LIP, IST), leader of Particles4Health, and co-supervision of Patrícia Gonçalves (LIP, IST), with contributions from Bernardo Tomé, Gonçalo Roriz, Carolina Miranda, Carlota Pataca, Eduarda Cunha and Francisco Cavaco, all affiliated with LIP, IST.
As winner of YSC 2025, Gonçalo Ribeiro will present FLASHGuard at the European Innovation Council Summit 2026 in Brussels.
More information is available in the official European Commission announcement.
Photo credits
Cover: Gonçalo Ribeiro at the Youth Start-Up Competition 2025.
In-article: Particles4Health team. From left to right: Bernardo Tomé, Patrícia Gonçalves, Pedro Assis, Gonçalo Ribeiro, Carolina Miranda, Gonçalo Roriz.