UK - The Pension Institute under Professor David Blake is moving across London, from Birkbeck College to the Cass Business School.

"One of the UK's leading pension fund experts, Professor David Blake, has brought his Pensions Institute to Cass Business School," the school said in a statement.

Professor Anne Sibert, Head of School at Birkbeck's School of Economics, Mathematics and Statistics, declined to comment but confirmed that the college, part of the University of London, would no longer be focusing on pensions.

Cass said the institute - set up in 1996 - is the only UK academic research centre focused on pensions research and that it would fit with its own actuarial scientists, economists and governance experts.

Blake will join Cass as Professor of Pension Economics. He said: "Major problems have been encountered in the past because each discipline regarded itself as seeing the entire pension picture."

"By breaking down the barriers we can find solutions that will benefit and influence policy makers and pension plan designers in the real world."

Citing "international demand", Blake said he plans to set up teaching programmes, including a postgraduate course. The institute would also run vocational courses for the National Association of Pension Funds.

"It's great to see that academics from different disciplines are being brought together under one banner and that there is a genuine commitment to share ideas," said pensions minister Malcolm Wicks. "The formation of centres like the Pensions Institute is vital to developing research and teaching in this area."

Deputy director of the institute will be actuarial scientist Steve Haberman, who is also deputy dean at Cass.