Our studies during Phase II of the Emmy Noether Program have demonstrated that the microscopic properties of metamaterials (of magnetic metamaterials in particular) are governed by strong near-field coupling between individual elements. These interactions lead to slow eigenmodes of coupling, which, due to their short wavelengths, are ideal candidates for the design of near-field manipulating devices. These topics represent a continuation and a logical development of the main directions I have been working on during Phase I of the Emmy Noether Program. It needs to be emphasized that there were no publications on the effect of the interelement coupling in metamaterials and on the propagation of magnetoinductive waves in metamaterials before our work on magnetoinductive waves started in 2002. Our studies stimulated interest in the subject. The topic of coupling between the elements and the resulting magnetoinductive waves evolved into an important branch of the metamaterials research as repeatedly acknowledged in the literature. This novel type of waves due to interactions between elements have great potential for applications mainly on account of their versatility and simplicity of design, helped also by the ease with which they can be produced, the relatively simple mathematical description of their operation, and the vast frequency range (from the MHz to the THz region) in which they can operate. Due to the waves of inter-element coupling, magnetic metamaterials may provide the basis for a variety of near-field manipulating devices subwavelength components, such as waveguides, power dividers, directional couplers, field concentrators, delay lines, phase shifters and lenses with subwavelength resolution.