Recent progress on novel photonics packaging concepts will be discussed, allowing for a dense integration of optical waveguides, coupling structures, light sources, detectors, and electronic circuitry. Through the involvement in various European research projects, these concepts are developed in different application domains, including printed circuit board-level optical interconnects (EU-FP7 project FIREFLY), active optical cable assemblies (EU-FP7 project MIRAGE), and artificial optical skin (EU-FP7 project PHOSFOS).