Towards the end of Run-2 of the LHC, it had become clear that we needed to turn our attention to non-standard searches for physics beyond the standard model. An obvious weakness has been the very small number of searches for new particles that may be long-lived and therefore escape either trigger or identification thresholds. In this talk, I will provide a compelling theoretical motivation based on two very different scenarios that can explain dark matter and demonstrate how they predict long-lived particles at the LHC. Based on work done in the past years, I will show how searches for these particles can be designed and known gaps that need to be bridged in the future. I will then outline the problems in both proposing and interpreting the results of these searches and how my work with experimental colleagues at LHC experiments aims towards solving these for Run-3 and beyond.
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