The Adam Smith Institute – a leading economic policy think tank – is a long-term contributor to the debate on pensions reform, maintaining close links with a range of specialist and senior researchers and policymakers in the financial services, industry, government and academe in the UK, Europe and the US. The notes below synthesize some of the important recent work touching the European pensions time bomb to provide a summary of the problem – its character, impact and importance – and the emerging direction for reform.