A biocurateur has several roles in biological database formalization and management. These functions are at the interface between data production, data processing and data analysis. The biocurator plays a key role in formalizing and structuring of biological concepts in the design of the database (using a hierarchical organization of data classes using ontologies that detail the relationships between concepts). Building ontologies specific project or expansion of internationally accepted ontologies are the responsibility of the curator. These ontologies also form the basis of the formats of data exchange between databases.

This function involves frequent interaction with major international projects structuring, but also work in consultation with professionals who develop schemas and web applications database. It must also be able to implement management strategies given by the organization of the collection, storage and processing of data from different sources. Finally, it is responsible for the accuracy and integrity of biological data from experiments on a small or large scale, seized from the literature or imported from more specialized databases. As such, a trustee must develop a coherent strategy curation and manage a team of annotators biological support to dissect the literature to formalize the data using ontologies database and enter data.