The Pakistan government has agreed to make funds available for postgraduate studies at a British university.
The £450,000 grant from the education ministry is meant for the Department of Peace Studies of Bradford University.
Its purpose is to help establish the South Asia Strategic Stability Unit.
Head of the Department of Peace Studies and unit director Dr Shaun Gregory said, "The education ministry of Pakistan has funded this but it has guaranteed the centre's complete independence.
"It is a really exciting opportunity. There are only a handful of centres like this around the world.
"We intend to work hard to promote arms control and to contribute to improving security relationships between India and Pakistan and addressing sources of tension and crisis across the region."
Bradford's Muslim Ahmadiyya Centre president Bary Malik said, "I wholeheartedly welcome this. The peace studies department in Bradford is renowned throughout the world for its excellent work.
"There is such a large South Asian community in Bradford that I think everyone will be pleased at this news. It is crucial that we try to build bridges and I look forward to seeing their good work develop."
The unit will invite junior and senior academics from across South Asia including Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka, on scholarships to conduct research and produce papers.
Dr Gregory explained, "We hope that these scholars will be able to go back to the region with new skills and new ideas which they can then input into the academic communities and policy processes. We hope also to learn from what they have to teach the wider international community."
The unit will also host a series of workshops and conferences to develop an awards scheme for previously unrecognised academic work on security issues.
The issues will include nuclear weapons and stability in India and Pakistan, conventional nuclear linkage, political and social stability and the ongoing tensions over Kashmir, from where many of Bradford's residents originate.
Three years ago India had decided to endow the chair of Indian history and culture at Oxford with a £1 million grant.
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