This paper contributes to the wider discussion of the collaborative research process and the situation of new academics in the early stages of their research careers. It draws on our lived experience through several collaborative research projects and is descriptive and autobiographical in nature. As such, it provides an opportunity for our voices as female academics to be heard in a different way. We suggest that collaborative research can both enhance research skills and empower early career researchers (particularly female academics). Further, we reassert the importance of collaborative research at a time when higher education policy has tended to encourage individualism and competition between researchers. As a methodology to reflect purposefully on our lived experience as co-researchers, we have used a qualitative design based on collaborative memory work. From the evidence presented in our stories, we have made some suggestions for developing successful collaborative research partnerships, both for individuals and institutions.