Five Irish companies have received funding of €8.8 million between them for projects focused on tackling the coronavirus that causes Covid-19.

UCD spin-out Sirius XT, which is led by former Farran Technology managing director Tony McEnroe, was awarded €1.5 million. The company has developed and built a benchtop soft X-ray microscope, the SXT100, that is capable of generating high-resolution 3D images of the internal structure of whole biological cells.

Overall, 36 companies from across Europe secured funding of €166 million from the European Innovation Council (EIC) through a mixture of grants or so-called “blended finance”, which comprises grant and equity support.

The Irish companies to receive funding are Aquila Bioscience, Kastus Technologies, Remedy Biologics and Sirius XT. An Irish subsidiary of Cambridge-headquartered Exvastat also received funding.

The funding awards come after a call was made in mid-March through the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 programme for applicants for EIC Accelerator funding. More than 1,400 applications for the accelerator were received, the council said.