The Dallol area (northern Afar, Ethiopia) is the ideal field lab to study the birth of a future ocean. The ADD-ON workshop brought together scientists from different disciplines, government agencies, local universities, and communities to plan a scientific drilling into the Dallol deep subsurface. This drilling will provide unique archives to resolve questions related to rift processes, seismic and volcanic activity, climate change, the deep biosphere, geothermal energy, and water resources.