The year 2019 will mark the culmination of 10 years of scientific discovery by more than 800 scientists from 40 nations who form the Deep Carbon Observatory (DCO). New discoveries are emerging about deep life, about the diversity of ways that oils and gases form, about mineral evolution, and about the co-evolution of the geosphere and biosphere. This grant supports the creation of a Synthesis Group within the DCO, led by Dr. Marie Edmonds of the University of Cambridge, U.K., which will take responsibility for ensuring that the project delivers on its commitments and that the whole of the project promises to be more than the sum of its parts. Edmonds and her team plan to explore several different possibilities for intellectual synthesis of the Deep Carbon Observatory’s work. Possibilities include a dynamic model of deep carbon in Earth, a diamond-themed synthesis that uses the popular gemstone to tell us as much as possible about deep carbon, a place-based synthesis that uses geographic or geological location to tell as much as possible about deep carbon, a mineral evolution synthesis, and an “Earth in five reactions” synthesis that tells the story of deep carbon through major chemical processes like serpentinization. Over the next two years, grant funds will allow Edmonds and her team to explore and prioritize these different approaches to synthesis as well as develop synthesis-related projects for potential future support.