This grant provides two years of core operating support to the Deep Carbon Observatory (DCO), headquartered at the Carnegie Institution of Washington. Funds will support the continued operation and activities of the DCO's governing secretariat and international steering committee, which is responsible for coordinating and synthesizing the individual initiatives pursued by the DCO's four scientific directorates. Though this grant, the Secretariat will pursue a diverse array of important goals, including further development of the organizational infrastructure of the DCO, strengthening the network of collaborating DCO institutions, overseeing the production of a "baseline report" that quantifies the current state of knowledge of deep earth carbon, managing a "launch" of the project aimed at major media and the public, securing matching gifts and other sources of funding for DCO activities, and developing a detailed vision for the final six years of the project.