From Higgs physics to Dark Matter searches: the quest for precision at the LHC

The continuous improvement of statistics and experimental systematics at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) permits to challenge the Standard Model of particle physics at steadily increasing levels of energy and precision. In this context, the uncertainty of theoretical predictions starts to play a decisive role in many areas of the physics program at the LHC. This provides a strong motivation to push theoretical predictions towards more complex processes and higher perturbative orders including QCD and electroweak corrections. In this talk, I will summarize the current status of SM measurements and will introduce several related theoretical challenges. I will briefly review the recent progress in perturbative calculations at the precision frontier, followed by a discussion of crucial applications to Higgs physics, top-quark physics and to background predictions in dark matter searches at the LHC.