NOTICES
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Pennsylvania Distilled Spirits Industry Promotion Board; Grant Solicitation and Application Procedures for Act 57 of 2024 Funding of a Statewide Marketing Project
[55 Pa.B. 276]
[Saturday, January 11, 2025]1. Introduction. Under Act 57 of 2024, the Pennsylvania Distilled Spirits Industry Promotion Board (Board) annually, or more frequently as the availability of funds permits, solicits proposals for grants to conduct promotion, marketing and research projects to increase the quality, profitability, production and sale of distilled spirits produced in this Commonwealth. The Board was established by section 505.5 of the Liquor Code (47 P.S. § 5-505.5). The Board makes recommendations for the awarding of grants by the Department of Agriculture (Department) from funds provided through the Liquor Code (47 P.S. §§ 1-101—10-1001). This notice establishes the procedures by which grant applications will be solicited and reviewed and grants awarded.
2. Grant Solicitation. The Board will be accepting grant applications for the purposes, in the form and according to the schedule set forth herein, for not less than 30 days beginning on the date of publication of this notice in the Pennsylvania Bulletin. Additional publication and dissemination of this notice shall be made and may include direct dissemination to State universities and State-supported universities located in this Commonwealth, universities with colleges of agricultural science located in this Commonwealth and individuals or entities who have requested notification from the Department or the Board of grant availability. Private sector parties are encouraged to apply.
The purpose of this solicitation is specifically to receive proposals from qualified marketing agencies toward a Statewide marketing effort to promote the distilled spirits industry in this Commonwealth. Proposals should include: an effort toward making the spirits tourism capital in this Commonwealth of the east coast, develop and implement a State brand for spirits in this Commonwealth and a consumer penetrations study to establish a baseline awareness of spirits in this Commonwealth amongst consumers in this Commonwealth. The Board will make one award not to exceed $700,000.
3. Process Overview. The Board will employ the review process described as follows to select projects and funding levels to recommend to the Secretary of Agriculture (Secretary) for the making of a grant. In the event of a recommendation to the Secretary to make and fund a grant, the decision as to whether to award a grant will be made by the Secretary.
a. If the Department approves the grant recommendation, the terms and conditions of the grant will be governed by a grant agreement between the Department and the applicant, which shall be tendered to the applicant for execution by the Department, returnable to the Department in no more than 30 calendar days from the date the agreement is sent.
b. The Department grant agreement is following as Addendum 1 and incorporated by reference. This grant solicitation will be incorporated by reference into, and become part of, the Department grant agreement that will govern all grants awarded under this grant solicitation. With certain limited exceptions for university applicants, the terms are nonnegotiable. Applicants may wish to carefully review the grant agreement to ensure that proposed projects are compliant with agreement requirements. Applicants who are unable to agree to the terms and conditions should not submit an application. For questions regarding the grant agreement, contact Patrick Andrews at (717) 772-1429 or Michael Keefe at (717) 307-3243.
c. The Grantee expressly warrants that, as it relates to the performance of the Project that is the subject of this Grant Agreement, it shall at all times comply with the Liquor Code and the Liquor Control Board's regulations at 40 Pa. Code §§ 1.1—17.41 (relating to liquor). For proposals which involve the sale, distribution or any other physical interaction with alcohol, it is recommended that applicants seek private counsel experienced in the Liquor Code to provide guidance as it pertains to the Liquor Code and the Liquor Control Board's regulations to ensure the legality and viability of grant projects and proposed activities. Approval of a grant is not a defense to any violations involving the Liquor Code.
4. Application Deadlines.
a. Application. The Board is seeking full proposals only for this round of grant making and will not entertain concept papers. Proposals in the form set forth in paragraph 5 of this notice are due to the Board by 4 p.m. on Friday, February 21, 2025. Applicants will need to create a Keystone Login and submit their proposals through the Single Application for Assistance located here at https://grants.pa.gov/Login.aspx.
b. Presentations. Applicants must be prepared to provide a brief presentation of their proposal to the Board, and answer questions, either in person or by conference call, at the Board's next scheduled meeting on Wednesday, April 2, 2025, at 10 a.m. The meeting will be held virtually by means of Microsoft Teams.
5. Format of the Project Proposal and Grant Application. Failure to follow this format could cause the proposal to be rejected. The project proposal, and budget must be completed within the templates that can be downloaded through the Single Application for Assistance at https://grants.pa.gov/Login.aspx. The Narrative section of the template must include the following:
a. Section 1, titled Statement of Purpose, addressing: the purpose for which the grant funds would be utilized; how the project links, supports and benefits the industry in this Commonwealth; methodology and evaluation, a qualitative or quantitative estimate of economic impacts (direct, indirect, induced); and the sectors of the industry that will receive this benefit.
b. Section 2, titled Statement of Need, addressing: the need for the grant funds sought; any other partners or partner organizations that will be involved with the project; and any other funding or noncash resources that will be committed to the project and the sources thereof.
c. Section 3, titled Evaluation and Reporting, shall identify expected measurable outcomes previously identified in the concept paper, and outcome measures and include a narrative describing data collection to inform the outcome measures. This section must be clear and unambiguous as it will inform expectations of progress and final reports.
d. Section 4, titled Industry Support, addressing the extent of support, participation and funding from the Commonwealth's distilled spirits industry, including associations, organizations or agencies with an interest in the project outcome. Letters or written confirmation of that support, participation or funding should be included in this section.
e. Section 5, titled Budget Narrative. There is a separate section in the template for the Budget Narrative that proceeds the Narrative. Applicants will provide details of how they arrived at the estimated expenses in the budget and describe how each expense will lead to the success of the project. A separate section inside the Budget Narrative shall discuss in detail, the source and usage of any required matching funds, if that requirement applies to the proposal.
f. Section 6, titled Budget. There is a separate template for the Budget which you must download from the Single Application for Assistance at https://grants.pa.gov/Login.aspx. Applicants will show a detailed budget for the proposed project or program, including any other matching funds and the value of any noncash resources that will be included in the project. Applicants must also complete the section of the template for matching funds if that requirement applies to their proposal. For all applications, each and every item of direct expense to be incurred in the project shall be separately set forth, including all purchases of consumable or nonconsumable goods or equipment, listing the disposition of all nonconsumable goods or equipment upon completion of the project; all travel by dates, purpose, destination, mode of transportation and rate; a full breakdown of other costs, if any, and the method used to calculate those costs.
i. Personnel—Includes employed personnel. Those employed elsewhere should be listed as subcontractors or consultants in the Contractual cost category. Provide detail of all personnel by name devoted to the project, their professional qualifications, the amount of time calculated by hours and the tasks to be performed by each of the named personnel. In the case of graduate student participation, reasonable stipends will be allowed and tuition will not be allowed.
ii. Fringe benefits—For personnel of the Grantee only, provide the rate of fringe benefits for each project participant's salary or wages. Identify the total for all funded fringe benefits.
iii. Travel—For personnel of the Grantee only, calculate the costs for travel by considering destinations, number of trips, days traveling, transportation costs, estimated lodging and meal costs and estimated mileage rate.
iv. Supplies—These are consumables procured for and used in furtherance of the projects and include such items as lab or field equipment.
v. Contractual—Those costs paid to other nonemployee individuals or entities to perform specific work or to provide specific services in accordance with the approved project. By way of example, this could include speaker fees, facility and equipment rental costs, software subscriptions, and costs for social media placement and data collection. If contractual work will be involved with carrying out the work of the project, identify the total contractual expenses. When determining the total cost for this category, include the fees for the professional services, contractor travel costs and any other related contractual expenses.
vi. Other—This category includes fees for conferences or meetings, membership dues, honorarium, scholarships, postage/shipping fees and publication costs.
vii. Indirect costs—Grant awards may include an allowance for indirect costs of up to 10% of the total direct costs. Total direct costs are defined as the total of the above six budget categories (Personnel, Fringe Benefits, Travel, Supplies, Contractual and Other) and are often referred to by Grantee entities as Facilities and Administration or Overhead.
g. Addendum, titled Demonstrated Qualifications, should be attached as a maximum 3-page addendum and should include the following:
i. List industry partners that are involved with the marketing proposal that will provide insight to the distilled spirits industry in this Commonwealth.
ii. Describe how the marketing plan is accountable to the distilled spirits industry in this Commonwealth.
iii. Provide documented success of previous marketing campaigns that the applicant or their subcontractor have conducted for other large-scale industries.
6. Scoring of Applications. The Board will evaluate each complete and timely filed project proposal and grant application received in accordance with a 100-point scale as set forth here.
a. Feasibility—up to 20 points.
b. Support and Participation from the Industry—up to 20 points.
c. Innovation—up to 20 points.
d. Expected Impacts and Outcomes—up to 20 points.
e. Methodology and Evaluation—up to 20 points.
The purpose of the program is to advance the industry Statewide. In the past, this and similar Boards have received project proposals which were designed to, or would have the primary effect of, benefiting only one individual entity or small group of entities, with only tangential, secondary benefits to the industry as a whole. Proposals containing a request to fund the purchase of equipment must clearly and accurately describe, in detail: (1) how the equipment is necessary to the proposed research or project being conducted; (2) why the proposed research equipment or project equipment must be funded by the program; (3) what the primary purpose of the equipment is; (4) how the applicant plans to use the equipment to benefit the industry as a whole, rather than just an individual entity or small group of entities; (5) the timeframe during which the equipment is expected to provide a benefit to the industry; and (6) plans for the disposition of the equipment at the conclusion of its use under the project. The Board reserves the right to downgrade or to refuse to recommend funding any application that does not meet these requirements. Industry-wide shared use will be prioritized over any individual profit. If any costs are charged for shared use, they will be limited to expenses incurred in facilitating access to the equipment (for example, transportation, reasonable staff cost to operate equipment and the like). To reiterate, the applicant should also demonstrate that the equipment will, in fact, benefit the industry as a whole rather than an individual entity.
7. Required Matching Funds. Applicants submitting a proposal may be required to commit a percentage of documented matching funds at the discretion of the Board. These contributed matching funds may be used for contractual expenses but not for personnel expenses. In-kind contributions will not be considered.
8. Evaluation, Recommendations and Awards. The Board reserves the right to request modifications or clarifications, or both, of project proposals and grant applications, including but not limited to additional detail of purpose, reduced or modified budgets, and the like. Upon completion of evaluations, the Board will prepare a record of each complete and timely filed project proposal and grant application received, and the numerical score assigned to each. In the event of one or more recommendations to the Department to make and fund a grant, the Board will transmit to the Department the complete and final project proposal and grant application along with the score assigned by the Board and any other information deemed relevant by the Board or requested by the Department. The Department will directly contact those applicants whose proposals were approved for funding. The Department is responsible for notifying applicants whose projects were recommended by the Board for the Department funding, but which the Department determined not to fund.
9. Term of Grants.
a. Grant Agreements will become effective on the date of the last required Commonwealth approval and can span up to 2 years. Expenses that occurred prior to the effective date of the contract may be reimbursed as long as they were included in the original proposal, Attachment G.
b. A Notice to Proceed, Purchase Orders, fully executed agreements, and invoicing instructions will be provided by the Department by means of email.
c. Final invoices shall be submitted to the Department within 60 days of contract end date as set forth in the Grant Agreement.
d. See Addendum 1 Grant Agreement for more details about the Department's grant administration practices.
11. Progress Reports. Progress reports are to include the deliverables from paragraph 5.c. and be delivered by email to RA-AGCommodities@pa.gov no later than October 1, and April 1, every year for the duration of the project, or as requested by the Board. Final reports should be submitted within 90 days of contract end date. Failure to meet these deadlines constitutes a breach of the grant agreement, will result in nonpayment of invoices and could jeopardize future grant awards.
12. Grant Agreement. The Department will provide applicants with a grant agreement for execution and return by the Grantee within 30 calendar days. The Department will obtain the required signatures on the grant agreements, including any other required Commonwealth entities and return a copy to the applicant. Grant agreements are not effective and work should not begin until all required signatures have been applied to the grant agreement and a Notice to Proceed is issued. Among the terms of the grant agreement shall be a requirement that the grant recipient provide the Board and the Department full and complete access to all records relating to the performance of the project and submit information as the Board or the Department, or both, may require.
13. Cost-Reimbursement Grant. Payment of all grant funds will occur on a reimbursement basis only. In the case of graduate student participation, reasonable stipends will be allowed and tuition will not be allowed.
RUSSELL REDDING,
Secretary
[Pa.B. Doc. No. 25-38. Filed for public inspection January 10, 2025, 9:00 a.m.]
No part of the information on this site may be reproduced for profit or sold for profit.This material has been drawn directly from the official Pennsylvania Bulletin full text database. Due to the limitations of HTML or differences in display capabilities of different browsers, this version may differ slightly from the official printed version.
