The initial responsibilities of this committee are as follows:  

to prepare an implementation plan for IMBER data management. The implementation plan will establish an appropriate data management strategy and policies to ensure creation of full metadata and access to, sharing of, and preservation of IMBER data;

to develop data and metadata guidelines for IMBER related projects;

to facilitate data management education and training for scientists.

In a longer term, the DMC and the DLO shall collectively:

ensure that the strategy is implemented;

ensure that IMBER endorsed projects adhere to the policies developed by the DMC and appoint or identify a Data Scientist;

keep track of IMBER metadata and make them available to the global community, via the IMBER portal;

keep track of IMBER data and ensure that they are made available at first to collaborators and later to the global community.