A rich variety of phenomena in the Standard Model and its extensions manifest in long-range processes involving bound states of quantum chromodynamics (QCD), namely hadrons. These are processes where intermediate hadronic states propagate over a long distance, between electroweak interactions. Examples include virtual Compton scattering and double-beta decay. Such processes are at the cusp of what can be systematically studied given two challenges. First, these reactions involve hadrons, and as a result one must use a non-perturbative tool to access their amplitudes. Currently lattice QCD is the only systematically improvable way we have for doing just this. Second, lattice QCD is defined in a finite, Euclidean spacetime. This introduces its own specific challenges, time in purely imaginary in lattice QCD, and by truncating the space one looses the notion of asymptotic states. In this talk I explain how these issues can all be resolved systematically for a relatively large kinematic region. In presenting the necessary formalism for doing this, I will summarize recent progress in lattice QCD in order to argue that the community is up to the challenge.