Abstract: In this talk we will explore the structure of EFTs  and black holes within the context of Quantum Gravity. Using string theory as a laboratory, we argue that any EFT describing Quantum Gravity should exhibit a double expansion for higher-curvature operators, which includes terms suppressed with respect to the Einstein-Hilbert term by either the mass of the lightest tower of states or by the Quantum Gravity cutoff, which we identify as the species scale. We will then discuss the implications of this framework for the asymptotic behaviour of certain Wilson coefficients of higher-dimensional gravitational operators, revealing interesting connections with recent S-matrix bootstrap results. Complementarily, we will present how minimal black holes can be used to understand such quantum gravity cutoff in asymptotic regions of field space, where their entropy appears to correspond to that of towers of states predicted by the Distance Conjecture. This provides  a generalization of the celebrated black hole-string correspondence. Finally, we briefly present how these two approaches  to the understanding of the species scale fit together , by discussing a particular example of BPS black hole in 4d N=2 from type IIA string theory compactified on a Calabi-Yau threefold.