  In this whitepaper, I describe modern applications of effective field theory
(EFT) techniques to classical and quantum gravity, with relevance to problems
in astrophysics and cosmology. As in applications of EFT to high-energy,
nuclear, or condensed matter physics, the Wilsonian paradigm based on
decoupling of short distance scales via renormalization group evolution remains
a powerful organizing principle in the context of gravity. However, the
presence of spacetime geometry brings in new elements ( non-trivial
time-dependence, cosmological or black hole event horizons) which necessitate
the introduction of novel field theoretic methods not usually encountered in
applications of EFTs to physics at the energy and intensity frontiers. After a
brief overview of recent developments in the application of EFT methods to
gravity, I will focus on the EFT description of compact binary dynamics,
including an overview of some of its applications to the experimental program
in gravitational wave detection at LIGO/VIRGO and other observatories.
