In recent years, lattice QCD has matured to the stage where it is now routine for calculations to be performed at or near the physical pion mass, with fully controlled extrapolations to the continuum and infinite volume limits. These calculations are predominantly related to flavor physics and heavy quark physics. The application of lattice QCD to nuclear physics is beset by a number of additional challenges which make them exponentially more expensive, prohibiting the same success so far for low-energy nuclear processes. Algorithmic improvements and the computing power of the next generation supercomputers promises an era in which we will be able to make rigorous, fully controlled calculations of basic nuclear properties. I will briefly introduce lattice QCD and describe the challenges in applying it to basic nuclear physics. I will then highlight some recent results and outline a strategy for connecting complex, exotic phenomena such as neutrinoless double beta decay to the fundamental theory of nuclear strong interactions, Quantum Chromodynamics. aim to test these findings with observations, using the Dark Energy Survey data currently available.