The National Institutes of Health (NIH) established an initiative called, "Increasing Diversitiy of the NIH-Funded Workforce." The program is designed to stimulate cultural changes at academic institutions to better prepare the best and brighest students for entry into research careers. The NIH is implementing two important initiatives to foster innovative ways to support recruitment and training within biomedical sciences. One initiative, BUILD, will allow the development and testing of novel models for underrepresented student recruitment and training within the biomedical sciences. The present open funding opportunity lays the foundation for the BUILD initiative by providing six-month planning grants to enable underresourced institutions to form partnerships and position themselves to prepare applications for the multi-year BUILD impelmentation funding opportuity, which is expected to launch in 2014. The second initiative, NIH National Research Mentoring Network (NRMN), will facilitate the development of robust mentoring relationships by coordinating nationwide pairings of scientific leaders and early career scientists who may benefit from additional mentoring, including, but not limited to, individuals from underrepresented backgrounds. For more information on the BUILD intiative, please visit the NIH website.