AACR Associate Members Receive Warm Reception at Early-career Hill Day

April 6, 2026 by

On March 18, 20 Associate Members from the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) gathered in Washington, D.C. for the 11th annual AACR Early-career Hill Day. As they waited outside the Capitol in long security lines during a cold, brisk, windy morning, they found warmth in the camaraderie of being around other students, trainees, and early-career researchers prepared to meet with congressional representatives or their staff to convey the crucial need to invest in the future of cancer research. 

Heather K. Beasley, PhD, at the 11th annual AACR Early-career Hill Day.

“It was a great, warm environment amid a very cold morning as we huddled among our groups to discuss our research, our personal lives, and our dreams,” said Heather K. Beasley, PhD, who is the chair of the AACR Associate Member Council (AMC) and a postdoctoral fellow at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center. “What was even better was the reception we received inside the Capitol was just as warm.”

When Beasley attended Hill Days last year, she said the meetings went a little differently, as a majority of the time was spent answering questions about the ins and outs of how research grants work, such as “What are indirect costs?” or “How much do researchers get paid if they get a $1 million grant?” This year, Beasley said there was less explaining and more conversing. 

“The staff were so much more knowledgeable and well-versed in how research is moving forward,” Beasley said. “They really wanted to understand how they can support us, which meant we had time to tell our stories. We got to share how basic research and clinical trials can affect someone’s mother, cousin, aunt, or friend. We got to share why research matters—and what happens when funding stops.”

Collectively, 28 early-career researchers—including eight who were not AACR Associate Members—participated in 61 meetings with congressional representatives or their staff from 16 states. Although Beasley has been a Tennessean for the past decade, she was born and raised in Alabama. So, in addition to visiting with staff for Rep. Matt Van Epps (R-Tenn.), Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), and Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), she also participated in meetings with staff for Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) and Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.).

During each of these meetings, Beasley emphasized that the staff really listened. For example, the staff from Alabama offered their help should she ever need it despite the fact that she isn’t their constituent. 

What It Takes to Be an Early-career Researcher

One question that a few of the staff did have this year was about the career trajectory of researchers. As Beasley discovered, not everyone was aware of what it actually means to be an early-career researcher. So, she joked, “Well, we are in training for 900 billion years.” But that was only her setup to an explanation that highlighted the importance of this training, how devasting it can be when it is disrupted, and how this commitment highlights the passion and dedication of researchers. 

To provide context that most people would understand, she compared being a postdoc—like her—to being a resident in a hospital. Just as a resident is receiving further training after getting their medical degree, a postdoc is receiving further training to be a PhD scientist. However, there is one key difference.

“Residents are being paid by the hospital, but the vast majority of postdocs are paid from NIH training grants,” Beasley explained. “So if we don’t have sustained funding, then labs shut down, PhDs lose their jobs, postdocs are forced out of academia, and all of that knowledge base and subject-matter expertise is gone—ending research that could eventually save lives.”

AACR Associate Members huddled outside the Capitol before heading in for their meetings.

That is what made the uncertainty caused by last year’s spending freeze and cuts so stressful for postdocs, like Beasley, who were applying for training grants during that time. Typically, Beasley said, it can take eight months to hear back with a decision about a grant application, and if you have to resubmit, then the process can take as long as 20 months. Not to mention that if the grant application is ultimately denied, you can’t just apply again right away—you have to wait until the next cycle.

“I don’t think some of the staff realized how long this process takes and how when we had that lapse in funding last year it could throw a person’s career off by several months or even years,” Beasley said. 

Disruptions to Researchers’ Careers Means Disrupting Scientific Progress

Beasley is among the early-career researchers who essentially lost a year in her career. In fact, the specific career transition award that Beasley applied for prior to the spending cuts that would have helped her transition to her own lab as assistant professor is no longer even offered at NIH. 

“Each grant application is tailored to that specific grant, so this isn’t like a job application where you can just apply somewhere else,” Beasley explained. 

Beasley opted to switch gears and went from studying the mechanisms behind breast cancer progression to looking at the therapeutic response in patients with hereditary breast cancer—a change that helped her get a NIH T32 training grant through the Division of Epidemiology.

While Beasley was able to find something new, another member within her Early-career Hill Day group has not been so lucky. Steven Forsythe, PhD, told the staff about how shortly after getting hired at the University of Alabama at Birmingham to work for a lab examining alternative nonanimal testing models for cancer treatments, the NIH grant the lab had been awarded to perform this research was pulled before the funds were distributed. This meant they no longer had the funding to do the research Forsythe was hired to do. Since then, he has pivoted the focus of his project while he is applying for new funding to restart his original research.

Heather K. Beasley, PhD, with Brad Davidson, PhD, who is from AACR, and Steven Forsythe, PhD.

To ensure more projects that could help advance progress against cancer aren’t eliminated due to funding cuts, each early-career researcher called on Congress to increase NIH funding by $4.1 billion and National Cancer Institute funding by $640 million over the fiscal year 2026 program level. They also encouraged Congress to place limits on the administration’s use of multiyear funding mechanisms to avoid further reduction of new research grants.

“I know early-career researchers are a resilient bunch, but if we don’t have sustained NIH funding, we simply can’t continue our projects,” Beasley said. “We cannot afford another period of uncertainty because we must keep moving forward.”