The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) will likely close 12 intramural labs, Science reported last Friday.

The NICHD may close the labs as part of $15 million in savings, according to Emails sent to Science and circulated to employees. Michael Gottesman, NIH deputy director of intramural research, said that this isn't the first time the intramural research program has been downsized, and that NICHD will still be "a reasonable size."

On January 30, Owen Rennert, NICHD's scientific director, sent an Email to employees saying that no decisions have been made yet and that outside scientists would be reviewing the labs over the next two years for their publication rate and relevance to NICHD's mission. But earlier in January, some NICHD investigators had already been informed that their labs were going to be closed.

One NICHD researcher who was anonymous told Science, "this is a completely new category of nightmare."

In 2007, NICHD award approximately $1.2 billion in research grants (click here to read the full report from NICHD).