Large Grants 2025
Participation in the ideas competition
The Federal Ministry for the Environment, Climate Action, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMUKN) and the Federal Foreign Office (AA) are launching the call for the IKI Large Grants (ILG).
The IKI Large Grants address current challenges in climate change mitigation, adaptation to the impacts of climate change and biodiversity conservation every year.
Participation in the ideas competition of the ILG Call is open to both German and international grant recipients as well as contractors in the form of German federal implementing organisations.
To participate in the ideas competition of the IKI Large Grants Call 2025 interested implementing organisations are invited to submit a project outline responding to one of the 11 thematic and country priorities listed below. A detailed description of the thematic and country priorities can be found here:
IKI Office
Zukunft – Umwelt – Gesellschaft (ZUG) gGmbH
Stresemannstraße 69-71
10963 Berlin
Phone hours:
Tuesdays 1 pm-3 pm (CEST/CET)
Thursdays 9 am-11 am (CEST/CET)
Status of the procedure
The IKI Large Grants Ideas competition (Call) starts on 17 November 2025 and will close on 17 February 2026, 2 pm (CET).
One to two projects per priority will be selected. The funding volume provided by the IKI can range from 12 to 20 million euros per project, depending on the thematic and country priority.
Thematic and Country Priorities
The following Country Priorities are available:
1. Strengthening electricity storage for renewable energy integration and electrification of end uses in Mexico
2. Building resilience of India’s forests, ecosystems and biodiversity against climate risks through effective and inclusive implementation of adaptation strategies highlighted in the National Adaptation Plan (NAP, currently under preparation)
3. Climate-Smart conservation and restoration of South Africa’s grassland landscapes and associated wetland ecosystems, to support long-term biodiversity protection and green economic development
The following Thematic Priorities are available:
4. Electricity grids and electricity storage as game changers for the energy transition
5. Urban value chains through bioenergy use: scalable solutions for sustainable methane reduction
6. Decarbonisation of emission-intensive sectors in Sub-Saharan Africa or South and Southeast Asia
7. Strengthening the climate resilience of coastal cities in South and Southeast Asia
8. Promotion of integrated bioeconomy approaches for resilience-enhancing climate protection and biodiversity conservation
9. Mobilisation of financial resources for the implementation of integrated NBSAPs
10 . Prevention, early detection and rapid response planning to avoid negative impacts of (invasive) alien species
11. a) Scaling of successful mitigation-relevant IKI approaches in energy, energy efficiency, industry, nationally determined contributions (NDC)/long term strategies (LTS), mobility, urban development, or climate finance (with a mitigation focus)
11. b) Scaling up successful adaptation approaches in the area of National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) and Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA)
Documents on the selection procedure
- Funding Announcement IKI Large Grants Call 2025 (English, PDF, 698 KB)
- Thematic and Country Priorities IKI Large Grants Call 2025 (English, PDF, 642 KB)
- Template sample outline form IKI Large Grants 2025 (English, DOCX, 82 KB)
- Template concept note Thematic and Country Priorities 1-10 (English, DOCX, 39 KB)
- Template concept note Thematic Priorities 11a/11b (English, DOCX, 40 KB)
- Selection Criteria IKI Large Grants Call 2025 (English, PDF, 275 KB)
FAQ IKI Large Grants 2025
Overview of important questions that may arise in the course of submitting an outline: FAQ ILG 2025
Online seminars on the IKI Large Grants Call 2025
The online seminar was an offer for interested implementing organisations to discuss the participation in the ideas competition as well as drafting, submitting and selecting a successful project outline. Two identical online seminars were organised at different time slots to respect different time zones.
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