The IBCSO program was adopted as an International Bathymetric Chart mapping project in 2004. Following groups and committees set up IBCSO in an official frame: the SCAR Geosciences Standing Scientific Group (GSSG), the IOC Consultative Group on Ocean Mapping (CGOM), and the Hydrographic Committee on Antarctica (HCA) of the IHO. IBCSO has also liaisons per membership with the GEBCO Sub-Committee on Digital Bathymetry (SCDB), the SCAR/SCOR Expert Group on Oceanography, and the SCAR Standing Committee on Antarctic Geographic Information (SC-AGI). The IBCSO program is now based at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Bremerhaven, Germany.