Nina Lazarczyk-Bilal

About me

Nina Bilal explores how circular economy principles can reshape food systems and packaging to build a more sustainable future.

Her work bridges entrepreneurship, sustainability, and innovation, with a particular focus on how companies and consumers can drive change toward circular food systems and bio-based packaging solutions.

Nina holds her PhD from the University of Warsaw, where she has studied the intersection of entrepreneurship and migration with the focus on newly arrived immigrants in Sweden.

She holds a master’s degree in Peace and Conflict Studies from Uppsala University and has been affiliated with institutions such as the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics (SITE), the Nordic Africa Institute (NAI), and Queen’s University Belfast.

Nina is a Senior Fellow of Humanity in Action, an international non-profit network dedicated to advancing human and minority rights. Her professional experience spans Sweden, Spain, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Poland, reflecting a strong international orientation in both her academic and applied work.

LinkedIn

RESEARCH

Circular and Sustainable Food Systems

• Designing resilient, local, and resource-smart food chains
• Applying circular economy principles to food production and consumption
• Exploring valorisation of by-products and circular business models within the food sector

Sustainable Packaging

• Investigating consumer attitudes around bio-based and seaweed-based packaging materials
• Understanding corporate attitudes and consumer perceptions of sustainable packaging
• Analysing how policy and innovation can reduce plastic dependency

Entrepreneurship & Diversity

• Refugee and immigrant entrepreneurship
• Diversity management and inclusive labour market practices
• The role of entrepreneurship in social and economic integration

Research Interests (Key words)

• Circular economy
• Circular food systems
• Industrial symbiosis
• Sustainable packaging
• Bio-based and seaweed-based materials
• Valorisation of by-products
• Circular business models
• Refugee and immigrant entrepreneurship
• Diversity management

Research Projects

• Circular Arctic Sweden
• NORFARM: Empowering Small-Scale Farmers: Business Growth and Preparedness in Norrbotten’s Local Food Systems (NorrlandsNavet)
• SEAWORTHY: Seaweed-based Eco-packaging Acceptance and single-plastic Waste-reduction Opportunities Through Holistic Research for a Sustainable Society” (SUN)
• UNIVERSEH European University

TEACHING at LTU

• Creative concept development (M7016T)
• IDEA developers: Innovation, Drive and Entrepreneurship (M0027T)
• Arctic Winter School (UNIVERSEH European University)
• Startech (UNIVERSEH European University)

TEACHING EXPERIENCE (Academic courses)

• Entrepreneurship
• Business Plan
• International Business
• Sustainability
• Diversity Management
• Global Responsibility - Role of Corporations
• Scientific Methods

Publications (not in DiVA)

• Refugees or Immigrants – How Does it Matter for Entrepreneurship? Systematic Review of Refugee Entrepreneurship Literature Inspired by the Immigrant Entrepreneurship Research
• Why do armed groups resort to sexual violence? The Case of Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, 2003-2009
• Naddniestrze – przemyśl Mołdawią a Rosją (Transnistria – between Moldova and Russia) [in:] Społeczesta i kultury Europy, edited by Jajecznik K., University of Warsaw & ASPRA, Warsaw 2010