Effective Field Theories (EFTs) are a useful tool across a wide range of DM searches, including LHC searches and direct detection. Given the current lack of indications about the nature of the DM particle and its interactions, a model independent interpretation of the collider bounds appears mandatory, especially in complementarity with the reinterpretation of the exclusion limits within a choice
of simplified models, which cannot exhaust the set of possible completions of an effective Lagrangian. However EFTs must be used with caution at LHC energies, where the energy scale of the interaction is at a scale where the EFT approximation can no longer be assumed to be valid. Here we introduce some tools that allow the validity of the EFT approximation to be quantified, and provide case studies for
two operators. We also show a technique that allows EFT constraints from collider searches to be made substantially more robust, even at large center-of-mass energies. This allows EFT constraints from different classes of experiment to be compared in a much more robust manner