WIMP dark matter as an active component

In these proceedings I briefly review the main mechanisms by means of which Weakly Interacting Massive Particles, here assumed to constitute Dark Matter, can contribute beyond the pure gravitational interaction to the evolution of the Universe. In particular, I will comment on how they can modify the yields of Primordial Nucleosynthesis, alter the Reionization history and take part into the first stellar episode in the Universe. © Copyright owned by the author(s) under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial- ShareAlike Licence