The standard model (SM) of elementary particles and their interactions has provided a remarkably accurate description of all experiments in particle physics. This has established our understanding of the physics of the very small up to energy scales of around 100 GeV. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN was conceived to probe the physics of the next frontier, that of the TeV energy scale, and to provide a definitive statement on whether or not the Higgs boson exists. The most popular and by far best understood extension of the SM is the framework of supersymmetry (SUSY), a symmetry that relates each elementary particle to a super-partner whose spin differs by 1/2. Like in the SM, SUSY is built around a Higgs sector but provides possible solutions to several theoretical problems of the SM e.g. the hierarchy problem. It is also a prime candidate to explain the amount of dark master observed in our Universe. With the recent discovery of a Higgs boson at a mass around 126 GeV and in the absence of any sign of New Physics signatures so far, even more focus has been placed on the interpretation of key collider searches in order to establish a more comprehensive understanding of the "big picture". One important class of these topology searches are the so-called missing energy searches, which can be used probe dark matter production in proton-proton collisions at the LHC. The interpretation approach of these searches varies from dedicated characterisation in New Physics models like SUSY to less model-dependent strategies. In this seminar I will present an overview of the missing energy searches at colliders ranging from generic topology searches probing SUSY cascade production over generic dark matter searches like the mono-X analyses. I will also comment on the comparison of these collider-based searches with direct dark matter detection experiments with a special emphasis on establishing the complementarity of the two approaches.
