The authors would like to acknowledge the many discussions and contributions with all of our former and current colleagues. Their names are given in the references cited. A special word of thanks is expressed to all “NAPES” members for many inspiring discussions and fruitful collaborations. The authors acknowledge funding for this research under the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) for research, technological development and demonstration, through the NAPES project grant agreement no. 604241. F. B.-L. acknowledges funding support from the Ramón y Cajal Programme (Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad), Spain as well as Gobierno Vasco, Dpto. Industria, Innovacion, Comercio y Turismo under ELKARTEK 2016 with Grant No. KK-2015/0000088 and Gobierno de España, Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, with Grant No. BIO2016-80417- P. We also acknowledge support from Science Foundation Ireland under the INSIGHT Centre initiative (SFI/12/RC/2289) and Enterprise Ireland (IP 2016 0502).

While the microfluidic device itself may be small, often the equipment required to control fluidics in thechip unit is large e.g. pumps, valves and mixing units, which can severely limit practical use and functionalscalability. In addition, components associated with fluidic control of the device, more specifically thevalves and pumps, contribute significantly to the overall unit cost. Here we sketch the problem of a gap between high end accurate, but expensive sensor platforms, versus less accurate, but widely employable hand-held low-cost devices. Recent research has shown that the integration of light-responsive materials within microfluidic devices can provide the function of expensive fluidic components, and potentially enable sophisticated measurements to be made using much less expensive equipment. An overview of the most recent developments will be presented for valves, mixers, transport and sample handling inside microfluidic devices.