Created in 1959 and spanning 7,000 acres, the Research Triangle Park is the largest research park in the United States. It is home to 132 research- and development-related organizations from a wide variety of fields. More than ninty-seven percent of the employees in the RTP work for research- and development-related organizations, and more than eighty percent work for multinational corporations.

Situated between Chapel Hill, Raleigh, and Durham, the RTP is in close proximity to a host of higher education institutions, including major research campuses at Duke University and North Carolina State University. The UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy's proximity to the RTP has helped spawn numerous interactions and collaborations between academia and industry, further enhancing the research environment and providing students with unique resources and opportunities in their study and research.