The conservation of built heritage is recognized as a vehicle for sustaining local identity, and a powerful instrument for urban regeneration. The problem of how to engage local culture in this process, however, has received comparatively little attention, despite the recognition of 'stakeholders' and the importance of their involvement. This research examines how collaboration between stakeholders might be established to conserve and thus help regenerate the historic and largely abandoned port town of Suakin. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with representatives of Suakin's stakeholder groups, and supported through archival analysis and observational studies. The intention was to explore the stakeholders' views of the 'conservation drivers', 'conservation practice', and 'conservation challenges and enablers' affecting Suakin. The stakeholders' response provides a preliminary status to the various perspectives concerning the conservation of Suakin's built heritage. The findings identify a number of major issues impacting Suakin's conservation and reveal a potential for implementing a comprehensive and inclusive conservation approach. The research establishes the case for further research to determine best methods to enable stakeholders to collaboratively address the issues impacting Suakin's conservation. This approach to stakeholder involvement represents a new step toward the conservation of Suakin, and a new contribution toward the conservation process.

The island town of Suakin (Ott. Sevvakin) was one of the major Red Sea ports and, for a short period, the capital of the Ottoman eyelet of Habes. It lies 60 kilometres south of present-day Port Sudan, and has recently been the subject of a Sudanese-British collaborative archaeological project focusing on three main areas of research: archaeological study of the development of the settlement, architectural study of the ruins, and the future protection of the place as a cultural site. This chapter summarises the aspects of the project reflecting Suakin's Ottoman history. The study identifies material confirming the activities that led to this prosperity, namely trade. The archaeological evidence recovered in the recent excavations does support the existence of a wide-ranging trade network into which Suakin was linked from the earlier Ottoman period, covering neighbouring areas but also extending to east and south-east Asia.

The port of Suakin on the western shores of the Red Sea served as one of the most important trading centres of the region throughout the second millennium AD. In 2002 an integrated conservation research project was initiated at the site following decades of neglect. This paper reports on one section of this project, the excavations centred on the building known as the Beit el Basha. This section of the archaeological investigations has provided important information relating to the earliest occupation of the island and key insights into medieval settlement and activity in the area.Le port de Souakin sur la cô te ouest de la mer Rouge a été l'un des centres commerciaux les plus importants de la région tout au long du deuxième millénaire de notre ère. En 2002, un projet de conservation intégrée de recherche a été lancé sur le site après des décennies de négligence. Cet article présente une section de ce projet, les fouilles autour de l'édifice connu sous le nom de Beit el Basha. Cette section des enquêtes archéologiques a fourni des informations importantes relatives à la plus ancienne occupation de l'île et des renseignements clés sur le peuplement et l'activité médiéval dans la région.

OBJECTIVES:To define the concept of pharmaceutical innovation, examine whether it merits reward, and identify mechanisms for its incentivisation. METHODS: Whether or not a medicine is innovative dependents on its novelty and the benefits it generates. Novelty requires something new, original and perhaps ingenious and is a necessary, but not sufficient, requirement for innovation. Novel pharmaceutical attributes include: new target of pharmacological mechanism of action, new chemical structure, improved formulation, improved pharmacokinetics and efficient methods of production. Benefits depend on perspective. Whereas a patient would value health-related quality of life, life expectancy, safety and convenience, payers of healthcare (e.g. UK NHS) may legitimately value population health and cost-effectiveness. A society might additionally value non-health benefits such as attracting pharmaceutical company investment in skilled jobs, and social responsibility (e.g. environment, neglected diseases). RESULTS: An effective vaccine developed in the UK against malaria would be considered highly innovative from a societal perspective, but not from an NHS perspective, as malaria does not affect NHS patients. CONCLUSION: Health benefits to NHS patients are already rewarded to (and in some cases beyond) the threshold for cost-effectiveness (£30,000 per QALY). There is no incentive for paying an additional premium. However, where benefits of innovation to society exceed the costs, there is an argument for reward. This should not be through price increases, but through taxation and patent laws. The Patent Box, which will decrease the corporation tax to 10% on profits from UK patents, is one such mechanism. Alternatively, a 'value-based patenting' scheme might vary patent duration according to the benefits achieved, as the clinical evidence matures from the time of licensing. This might benefit patients through the earlier introduction of generics when branded products are mediocre, reward genuinely innovative products, while still allowing the introduction of 'me-toos' to compete on price.

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