CrannMed Secures €12.5M in Latest EIC Accelerator with Myriad

With the latest round of the EIC Accelerator’s winners announced, Myriad has another successful application to celebrate.

CrannMed, a Galway-based medical device company, received €12.5 million from Horizon Europe’s EIC Accelerator programme, enabling to further develop SakuraBead™ and improve the lives of people living with chronic pain.

What is the EIC Accelerator?

Horizon Europe’s European Innovation Council (EIC) runs multiple funding mechanisms, the largest of which is the ever-popular EIC Accelerator. Offering highly innovative companies the opportunity to apply for up to €12.5 million in funding, the EIC Accelerator is designed to support SMEs with projects at Technology Readiness Level 6-8 and enable them to reach a commercialisation stage.

The EIC Accelerator targets start-ups, spinouts and other SMEs with high-risk, high-reward projects that aren’t yet viable for private investors. The projects should also target a social good, like climate and energy transition, digital transformation and health projects. EIC Accelerator funding will not fully fund a project; 30% of the project’s costs must be self-financed by the applicant.

This is a very competitive funding mechanism, with a 7% success rate in recent years. It’s a three-stage application, requiring you to pass each stage to move to the next. The three stages are a short application, a full application and a face-to-face interview.

You can read more about recent trends in winning projects in our dedicated blog: EIC Accelerator 2024 vs. 2025: What the Data Tells Us

Developing Groundbreaking Medical Devices

The EIC Accelerator has a history of funding medical devices and other innovative healthcare projects and 2025 was no different, with 31% of projects in the October 2025 cut-off being in the life sciences sector, comfortably the largest in terms of sectors funded.

CrannMed is one of these companies looking to revolutionise European and global healthcare. Their SakuraBead™ technology has the potential to help 20% of the population by reducing chronic inflammatory pain. Their resorbable embolic microsphere have the potential to replace permanent microspheres with applications in osteoarthritis, planar fasciitis and other musculoskeletal pain conditions.

The technology offers support to patients by cutting off blood flow to tissue, reducing inflammation, then using enzymes to control the microsphere degradation and restoring blood flow to retain healthy tissue. Depending on the patient's needs, the SakuraBead™ technology can time its degradation to between a couple of hours or six months, but ultimately leaves no trace in the body when resorbed.

The funding CrannMed received in this latest EIC Accelerator round will allow the company to commercialise in EU and US markets. €2.5 million in grant funding will be used to expand the applications of SakuraBead™, moving from knee osteoarthritis, frozen shoulder and lower back pain into further applications like hand osteoarthritis and plantar fasciitis. €10 million in equity funding will then be used in the company’s commercialisation efforts, with targeted sales as early as late 2026.

CrannMed’s CEO, Liam Farrissey, had this to say about the grant award: “[It] will enable us to expand our technology to treat a broader range of chronic musculoskeletal pain conditions and ultimately more patients.”

Myriad’s Approach

CrannMed’s success with the EIC Accelerator is built on years of research and development, but also years building a relationship with Myriad. Our deep understanding of the company and its breakthrough technology formed the foundation of this application’s success.

Myriad’s grant bid writers, Marc Greatrex and Lauren Olson, worked with the CrannMed team to discuss the positioning and the key message to deliver, before drafting the first stage – a short proposal – including a problem description, a breakdown of the market opportunity, a detailed look at the innovation’s background and the company’s development, competitive analysis and societal impact.

The team focused on the deeptech nature of CrannMed’s SakuraBead™, revolutionising the pain management solutions in this space by offering long-lasting, superior pain relief with no learning curve for the physician and no patient excluded. It targets people suffering from chronic pain, roughly 20% of the European population, and increases their quality of life while also reducing the wider financial burden of chronic pain.

With three ‘Go’s at the first stage, the Myriad team proceeded to preparing the full application, a 50-page document including a full budget, an additional slide deck, a video submission and other required documents.

Unfortunately, the first full application in March 2025 was not given the necessary ‘Go’ decisions at the face-to-face interview stage. This is not uncommon at this stage, especially against strong competition. In this cut-off, only 40 of the 149 projects that made it to the interview stage were selected. The CrannMed and Myriad teams took on the jury’s feedback and began preparing a resubmission for the next cut-off date in October 2025.

The October 2025 submission was successful, allowing the team to begin preparing for the face-to-face interview. Myriad ran through many test interviews with the CrannMed team to prepare them for the EIC’s interrogation of the project.

The CrannMed successfully presented the project at interview and were offered the full grant they requested in the October 2025 cut-off. Myriad’s support doesn’t end here; we supported the team through their grant agreement and will continue to work closely through the project, monitoring other funding opportunities and working with CrannMed regarding reporting obligations.

Myriad is especially proud of this success as it demonstrates the value of a dedicated grant proposal team and a strong belief in a project. CrannMed was the only Irish company funded in this cut-off.

Marc Greatrex, Director of Myriad’s Grant Division, said “We are thrilled to see CrannMed’s groundbreaking technology receive the funding it deserves. SakuraBead™ will change the lives of people living with chronic pain. This EIC investment shows Europe’s dedication to supporting European innovation and recognising Irish talent.”

If you’d like to see how Myriad can support you in your journey to funding your innovation, get in touch with our team.