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A $3.5M Research Chair to Remediate Québec’s Soil and Groundwater

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INRS and its partners join forces to develop sustainable solutions to a critical environmental challenge

QUÉBEC CITY, July 15, 2026 /CNW/ – The Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS), in collaboration with the Ministère de l’Environnement, de la Lutte contre les changements climatiques, de la Faune et des Parcs (MELCCFP), announces a new industrial research chair for the in situ treatment of soil and groundwater contaminated by persistent and emerging pollutants. The initiative, launched with the support of TechnoRem, a subsidiary of ABS, aims to address one of Québec’s most pressing environmental challenges: the sustainable remediation of contaminated sites.

A key environmental issue

Contaminated soil and groundwater are a considerable environmental liability for Québec. Municipalities, government agencies, and developers must contend with complex contamination issues, emerging pollutants, and limited–particularly financial–resources. In situ treatment technologies, which allow decontamination to proceed directly on site, offer an ecological, cost‑effective, and context‑appropriate solution.

Under the leadership of Professor Richard Martel, a recognized expert in hydrogeology, the Chair’s team will develop new knowledge and strategies to improve in situ treatment methods and identify new applications.

“In today’s environmental context, in situ decontamination of soil and groundwater is critically important. The easiest sites to decontaminate are already being treated, but persistent contaminants–buried deep underground or located beneath infrastructure–are stubbornly hard to get at and remove. With this Chair, we aim to address Québec’s needs by working with industry to develop innovative and sustainable approaches capable of treating these pollutants directly at the source.”
 — Richard Martel, INRS Professor and Holder of the Industrial Research Chair in In Situ treatment of soil and groundwater contaminated by persistent and emerging pollutants 

The Research Chair will receive $3.5 million in funding from MELCCFP and ABS‑TechnoRem over the next five years.

An exciting partnership for the advancement of knowledge

The Chair brings together professors, engineers, and field specialists around a common goal: accelerating the development of workable and effective in situ decontamination solutions adapted to Québec’s realities.

At INRS’s Centre Eau Terre Environnement, a multidisciplinary team will leverage its expertise in site remediation, environmental biotechnology, industrial bioprocesses, modelling, and engineering in collaboration with other universities, including Polytechnique Montréal and UQAT (Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue). The partnership with TechnoRem adds vital operational expertise to test and validate new solutions under real‑world conditions and support their transfer to end‑users.

“In situ decontamination is essential for rehabilitating polluted sites and ensuring they can be used safely. For over 35 years, our commitment has been to improve quality of life for Quebecers. This new Chair is a reflection of our pride and our drive to innovate. With the vision and expertise of our partners, we will strengthen Québec’s leadership in remediation solutions and continue to develop cutting‑edge approaches to meet tomorrow’s challenges.”
 — Jean‑Marc Lauzon, principal director, ABS‑TechnoRem

Research activities will follow a complete development pathway: laboratory research, intermediate‑scale testing in 2D and 3D sand tanks, and then pilot‑scale field trials. The Chair is committed to driving innovation in in situ treatment.

Tackling the most worrisome contaminants

The research will focus on substances of particular concern, including per‑ and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), petroleum hydrocarbons, dioxins, furans, perchlorates, brominated flame retardants, plasticizers, and selected pharmaceutical products. These contaminants enter the environment following accidental spills or as a result of earlier industrial practices.

They are persistent and toxic to human health and ecosystems and require treatment methods adapted to Québec’s colder climate and the remoteness of some of its treatment sites.

Big benefits for Québec

Treating contaminants directly at the source will sustainably reduce Québec’s environmental liability while avoiding offloading the problem to landfill sites. Less excavation and transportation of contaminated soil will also reduce greenhouse gas emissions and related nuisances.

Local communities will enjoy reduced exposure risk without need for relocation and with no disruption to surface activities. Economically, the Chair will contribute to the development of a Québec in situ treatment industry while fostering innovation and creating specialized jobs, particularly in remote regions.

“Implementation of the 2023–2029 Action Plan under the Soil Protection and Contaminated Land Rehabilitation Policy marks a decisive milestone for Québec. Land decontamination and redevelopment are strategic and essential priorities in efforts to revitalize our communities. The industrial research chair in in situ treatment will play a decisive role in this regard by accelerating innovation, strengthening Québec expertise, deploying sustainable solutions adapted to our environment, and achieving the Action Plan’s objective of increasing the number of sites rehabilitated through in situ technologies.”
 — Marie Andrée Vézina, Director, Soil Protection and Industrial Remediation Branch, MELCCFP

“This funding reflects the Ministry’s confidence in INRS and in the work it has entrusted us to carry out. Backed by an exceptional team, recognized expertise in sustainable site remediation, and strong research partnerships with collaborators across sectors, we are accelerating the development of solutions that address Québec’s needs. This Chair strengthens our Centre, brings research, engineering, and industry closer together, and aligns fully with the mission of INRS: putting science to work for Québec’s economic, social, and cultural development”
 — Louis‑César Pasquier, Director, Eau Terre Environnement Research Centre, INRS

INRS will also play a central role in training the next generation of scientists to meet the growing need for sustainable decontamination.

The Chair is aligned with the MELCCFP’s 2023–2029 Action Plan, which seeks to foster innovation and sustainable rehabilitation methods.

About INRS  

INRS is an academic institution dedicated exclusively to research and graduate training in strategic niches in Québec. For 55 years it has contributed to the economic, social and cultural development of Québec. INRS is the Canadian leader in research intensity. The school is made up of four interdisciplinary research and training centres located in Québec City, Montréal, Laval, and Varennes, which focus on the following strategic areas: Eau Terre Environnement, Énergie Matériaux Télécommunications, Urbanisation Culture Société, and Armand-Frappier Santé Biotechnologie. Its community includes more than 1,500 students, postdoctoral fellows, faculty, and staff. 

About the MELCCFP

The Ministère de l’Environnement, de la Lutte contre les changements climatiques, de la Faune et des Parcs (MELCCFP) is responsible for protecting the environment, ensuring the conservation and enhancement of biodiversity, and playing a leading role in climate action and the transition to a low-carbon future. Through a sustainable development approach, the Ministry contributes to addressing Québec’s key environmental, social, and economic challenges.

About TechnoRem

Founded in 1996, TechnoRem brings together approximately 50 specialized professionals and technicians whose expertise spans geology, hydrogeology, water resource management, water treatment, civil engineering, mechanical and process engineering, geochemistry, mathematical modelling, and the characterization and remediation of contaminated sites.

Driven by scientific rigour and a passion for innovation, TechnoRem supports a diverse clientele in meeting complex environmental and sustainability challenges through forward-looking, tailored solutions. The company provides consulting, design, and implementation services for integrated solutions in environmental remediation engineering, as well as the management, conservation, and protection of groundwater resources. Its work is underpinned by a strong understanding of subsurface systems and a commitment to innovation.

Since joining Groupe ABS in 2022, TechnoRem has gained access to an extensive pool of specialized expertise in geosciences, materials engineering, and industrial hygiene, further strengthening its ability to deliver comprehensive solutions to environmental challenges.

SOURCE Institut National de la recherche scientifique (INRS)

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PrimeBOT Wins Gold and Silver at A’ Design Award 2026 — A New Language for Personal Robotics

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MILAN, July 16, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — At the A’ Design Award ceremony in Milan, PrimeBOT Q1 and T1 received Gold and Silver respectively — marking the first global recognition for the “Personal Robot” category. The PrimeBOT design team accepted the awards on behalf of the studio.

What is a Personal Robot? PrimeBOT is the first brand to define this emerging category. Unlike industrial or service robots built for specific functions, the Personal Robot is shaped around the human being — it serves, connects, and empowers individuals. It is not a machine confined to factories, but an intelligent companion that fits into a backpack, a study, and everyday life.

For people, unlike people. Both Q1 and T1 share a single philosophy: For people, unlike people. PrimeBOT moves beyond the industry’s fixation on human-like replication, rejecting synthetic faces or skin textures. Instead, it adopts a minimalist geometry and an enclosed form that conceals mechanical structures — reducing the distance technology often creates. The body uses warm-touch materials with soft curves that convey warmth and safety. At rest, it blends into home surroundings; in motion, its movements remain fluid and restrained.

Q1 and T1: two expressions of one design. Q1’s 80cm height is carefully calibrated — not too large, not too small — sitting at the intimate social distance humans naturally share. Its outer shell is open-source, supporting 3D-printed customization and swappable modules, allowing users to shape a robot that reflects their own taste. T1, the latest model, transforms from bipedal to quadrupedal mode — while maintaining the same design principles for home environments. Design becomes a two-way conversation, not a one-way statement.

PrimeBOT has initiated market development in North America and Europe. From five CES 2026 awards to Gold and Silver in Milan, the brand is engaging with users worldwide through design.

The A’ Design Award affirms PrimeBOT’s vision — not about showcasing technology, but about making machines that truly understand, serve, and accompany people.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/primebot-wins-gold-and-silver-at-a-design-award-2026–a-new-language-for-personal-robotics-302828202.html

SOURCE PrimeBOT

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Longbridge Unveils the World’s First AI-Native Investing Platform, Ushering in a New Era of Investing

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Four products replace menus and interfaces with conversation — bringing institutional-grade investment capabilities to individual investors everywhere AI lives

HONG KONG, July 17, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Longbridge Group, the AI-powered fintech company, today unveiled a new generation of AI-native* investing products, redefining how people engage with the market and rebuilding the investing experience around a single idea: investing begins with a conversation, wherever that conversation happens — in Longbridge’s own products, or inside the AI assistants used by billions of people every day. In either place, users can complete the entire investing process, making AI the true operating system of investing.

A New Era of Investing, Rebuilt Around You

For five decades, every wave of innovation, lower costs, online platforms, mobile apps made investing easier to reach, yet investors are still left piecing together watchlists, charts, screeners and research on their own. Longbridge AI removes the interface altogether: investors simply ask, and the AI helps them discover opportunities, analyse information, build a plan and review each decision in one workflow — bringing a capability once reserved for professional institutions to every investor.

“Every major shift in brokerage has made investing easier to access, whether through lower costs, online platforms or mobile devices, but access has never been the same as having an institutional investment process,” said Nowa Zhu, Group CEO and Co-Founder of Longbridge. “We envision Longbridge AI as an emerging force reshaping the investing experience. Instead of asking investors to navigate increasingly complex platforms, we believe investing should begin with a conversation via language user interface (LUI). AI becomes the underlying operating system of investing, and language becomes the interface — helping investors move from discovering opportunities to making informed decisions, not only on our platform but wherever they already talk to AI.”

Four Products, One Ecosystem

The launch introduces four connected products that together span the full investing journey, from discovering opportunities, analysing information, formulating strategy, to executing decisions and reviewing outcomes.

Longbridge App is the Group’s flagship AI-native investing application, conceived and built in Singapore. It is built around one continuous loop: Catalyst, what happened; Signal, what it means for your holdings; Plan, what to do, with a drafted order you review; and Review, what you learned. This truly brings institutional-grade capabilities to every individual investor. Investors no longer learn the app. They simply ask, in words, voice or a photo, and it takes them from what happened to what to do.

Longbridge AI is the Group’s flagship AI investing agent. Rather than waiting to answer questions, it scans the market for developments relevant to an investor’s holdings, remembers their portfolio and past decisions, and thinks one step ahead, drafting an action plan for the investor to review. The more it is used, the better it understands each investor’s preferences and decision-making style, helping investors build a more consistent and disciplined investing process. It anticipates and proposes, but every trade is executed only after the investor’s confirmation, fully upholding the Human-in-the-loop principle.

Longbridge Skill connects more than 13 investing skills, including real-time market data, fundamentals, derivatives analysis and trade order drafting, directly into the AI assistants investors already use. No new app to download, no switching platforms: investors get zero-barrier access to institutional-grade financial capabilities. It works natively with mainstream assistants including ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini, as well as developer tools such as Cursor. By meeting investors inside the AI used by billions of people every day, Longbridge extends AI-native investing far beyond a single app.

Longbridge Agent Platform is the open marketplace where strategies, analysts and skills compete side by side, rather than converging on a single house view. Investors can build their own investing agent in plain words, subscribe to approaches created by others, or publish their own agent, which can be discovered and used by any AI, anywhere, opening up a breadth of investment perspectives that were once gatekept, a new era of investing rebuilt by every individual.

Bringing Institutional Investment Capabilities to Everyone

Longbridge sees this launch as the start of a longer commitment, not a single moment. The company plans to establish the Longbridge AI Lab in Singapore, dedicated to exploring best practices in investment research, risk management and human-AI collaboration, and to advancing the responsible use of AI in finance. The Lab will partner with local universities and industry leaders, and create roles that bring top-tier AI talent to the city.

Longbridge’s AI-native investing platform is designed to close the gap between institutional and retail investing by bringing market research, portfolio analysis, investment planning, trade execution and post-trade review into a single AI-native workflow. It follows a human-in-the-loop principle: the AI proposes and the investor decides. Throughout the investment process, investors remain in control of every decision, and final execution always requires their confirmation.

From Asia to the World

Conceived and built in Singapore, the Longbridge AI suite launches first in Singapore, home to a mature financial market, a robust regulatory framework and some of the world’s most active retail investors, an ideal environment for AI-native financial products. Hong Kong has long been one of the Group’s core markets, where the team has spent years serving local investor needs, while Singapore serves as a key base for the Group’s global product development. Starting from Asia, Longbridge aims to bring the AI-native investing experience to markets worldwide.

“This product is made in Singapore: designed here, built here,” said Gavin Chia, CEO of Longbridge Securities for Singapore and Southeast Asia. “For decades, the world’s great financial products came from New York and London. We believe the next generation of world-class financial products can be born in Asia and serve the world. Longbridge AI is the first step toward that vision, and a milestone for Asian innovation going global.”

The Longbridge AI products will be available to Singapore users from 15 July 2026 at https://longbridge.com/ai.

*”AI-Native” is defined as: AI that reshapes the product itself, rather than merely optimising product efficiency. Based on our research, no other listed retail broker licensed to operate in Hong Kong, Singapore or the United States currently meets this standard.

Disclaimer

The launch event is organised by Longbridge Group. The AI products unveiled are proprietary innovations developed by Longbridge Group and will be introduced progressively across the United States, Singapore, and other markets throughout Asia.

About Longbridge Group

Longbridge Group is a leading fintech company with three main business segments: Securities, Technology, and AI.

Longbridge Securities is an AI-powered online brokerage that serves global investors with optimal trading experience through building worldwide trading infrastructure and networks.
Website (Global) : http://longbridge.com LONGPORT Whale provides multi-market, multi-asset trading solutions for brokers, banks, family offices, and other institutions with trading services.
Website: https://longportwhale.com LongbridgeAI is a next-generation AI-native financial data and trading infrastructure platform built for global investors, quantitative researchers, AI agents, and developers.
Website: https://longbridge.com/ai 

 

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/apac/news-releases/longbridge-unveils-the-worlds-first-ai-native-investing-platform-ushering-in-a-new-era-of-investing-302828201.html

SOURCE Longbridge Group

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GAC Celebrates 30-Millionth Vehicle Roll-off, Sharing Milestone Moment with Global Users

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GUANGZHOU, China, July 16, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Trusted by 30 Million, Powered by Quality. On July 16, GAC Group hosted the 30 Million Customers Appreciation Event at the GAC manufacturing plant. The event was attended by leaders from Guangdong Province, Guangzhou Municipality, and Panyu District; Fu Bingfeng, Executive Vice President and Secretary-General of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers; Feng Xingya, Chairman of GAC Group; Xia Xianqing, President of GAC Group; along with other members of the leadership team, industry partners, suppliers, dealers, domestic and overseas customer representatives, employee representatives, and media representatives.

During the ceremony, GAC’s overseas manufacturing bases were linked via live video. Its Thailand plant celebrated the roll-off of its 10,000th vehicle, a new model rolled off the line at the Indonesian plant, and the Austrian plant in Graz officially commenced mass production of the AION UT. The highlight came when the right-hand-drive GAC M8 PHEV – sold overseas as the GN8 – took the stage as the 30-millionth vehicle. Feng Xingya handed the keys to Thai customer Tony Jaa, a globally renowned action star and household name in Thailand. This moment captured not just a number, but the mutual trust and shared journey between GAC and its global users.

The 30 millionth delivery marks a major milestone in GAC’s 29-year journey. Behind this number lies the trust of tens of millions of customers, GAC’s commitment to quality and safety, its push for electrification and intelligent technology, and a reflection of China’s auto industry shift from scale to value.

GAC has long been a pioneer of China’s automotive globalization drive, expanding overseas since 2013. In the first half of 2026 alone, GAC exported over 120,000 vehicles, up 132% year-on-year. To date, GAC’s global footprint spans 110 countries and regions across five continents, with a network of over 746 sales and service outlets, 7 overseas manufacturing plants, and 9 parts warehouses. Cumulative exports have surpassed 540,000 units, and GAC’s global brand influence continues to rise.

To express its gratitude to 30 million customers worldwide, GAC has officially launched the “30 Millionth Vehicle Roll-off • Renewed Gratitude Season” campaign, with preferential offers rolling out across all regions worldwide.

For further information about GAC, please visit: https://www.gacgroup.com/en or follow us on social media.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/gac-celebrates-30-millionth-vehicle-roll-off-sharing-milestone-moment-with-global-users-302828216.html

SOURCE GAC

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