Newly appointed lecturers joining teaching-focussed environments can encounter significant challenges to sustain a successful research career. Some of these challenges pertain to the existing work culture and the suitability of mentoring. At the same time, success in academia is typically associated with the "academic super-hero" model where individuals are expected to achieve excellence on all fronts and in short timescales. Here, we offer a complementary model: the research collective. The research collective is defined as a self-formed group of researchers (irrespective of specialism) supporting each other and presenting themselves united when aiming to promote both their own research, and when promoting the value of research in their department, thereby creating around them an empowering proximate research culture. The advantages of this new model are outlined, and illustrated using the Earth, Ecology and Environment research collective, as an example. Key benefits are described in terms of: i. enhancing the proximal and institutional research culture, ii. promoting the image of the research collective's members to the outside, and iii. ultimately enhancing the research career prospect of individuals. Additionally, we suggest actions research administrators and other stakeholders within the university can take to support the development of research collectives.