The Foundation's Deep Carbon Observatory (DCO) science program initiated in 2009 aims to revolutionize understanding of the carbon at great depths in Earth's crust and even below, in the mantle. With Foundation support, the sea floor scientific drillers, now united worldwide in the International Ocean Drilling Program (IODP), propose to meet with the emerging deep carbon community, to explore whether the time is ripe to pursue a project to drill a borehole down to the boundary between the Earth's crust and its mantle and whether such an effort should be associated with the Deep Carbon Observatory. Funds from this grant will support this meeting, hosted by the DCO leadership at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, which will aim to achieve clarity about the risks, costs, and benefits of such a project with an eye towards a well-informed decision by the Deep Carbon Observatory about whether it should form a part of the DCO.