Nikolai's current work with the Center for International Manufacturing (CIM), led by Prof Jagjit Singh Srai and Dr Ettore Settanni within RASCAL (Resilience in Agrifood Systems Supply Chain Configuration Analytics Lab), focuses on integrating interdisciplinary data sources and system dynamics modelling to address cascading risks in agri-food supply chains. Dr Kazantsev is particularly involved in designing interactive digital environments that facilitate scenario planning and evidence-based decision-making for stakeholders across the food system. His research supports the creation of predictive and intervention-driven solutions to enhance the resilience of UK food supply chains amid economic, climatic, and geopolitical disruptions.

His research interests include system-level methodologies and capabilities to develop, reconfigure, and deploy manufacturing capacity:

• preparing manufacturing capacity for demand fluctuation, hence to scale output quickly and cost-effectively within a range of product volume/mix (cf. 'Elastic manufacturing systems' research programme)
• preparing manufacturing capacity across supply chains for demand shocks after disruptions, like a future pandemic, to produce the limited number of 'fit-for-purpose' products (e.g., PPEs, sanitizers, water filters, ventilators) 
• preparing policies for societal resilience from the production perspective that helps buffer demand shocks at several levels to respond to catastrophic risks from the National Risk Register (2023) optimally.

Dr. Nikolai Kazantsev holds a Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) at Clare Hall College, Cambridge, where he supports a selected cohort of postgraduate students as a college tutor.

Nikolai received his PhD from the Alliance Manchester Business School, The University of Manchester, after the dissertation ‘Supporting SME collaborations in low-volume high-variability manufacturing’. His postgraduate research was supported by the EU-funded project DIGICOR, inc AIRBUS and their largest supply cluster, Zoetis – the largest animal health company, and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.