The Antarctic Treaty (Article III (3) (c)) states that all Antarctic Treaty signatories shall "promote international co-operation in scientific investigation by exchanging, and making freely available, scientific observations and results from Antarctica".

Further to this, the Antarctic Treaty Consulative Meeting (ATCM) XXII in 1998 resolved that "Consultative Parties and their National Antarctic Data Centres encourage their scientists, through a process of education, support and the development of policies and procedures, to provide in a timely manner appropriate information to their National Antarctic Data Centres for distribution through the Antarctic Data Directory System". Part of this Antarctic Data Directory system is the Antarctic Master Directory (AMD).

The purpose of the AMD is to facilitate national and international information sharing. It enables users to locate and obtain access to Antarctic science, global change and related Earth science research data sets.

The AMD database holds descriptions of these Antarctic science data sets, covering all aspects of Antarctic sciences, thereby creating a global one-stop-shop for scientific research in and about Antarctica. One can use the search box, or select from the available keywords to search for data and services.

The advantages of this system are that it:

• Facilitates leverage off previous research;
• Maximises usage and value from the principal asset from research: the data;
• Minimises unnecessary duplication or repetition of costly research;
• Promotes inter-disciplinary research analysis;
• Increases cooperation between researchers;
• Promotes national and international programme awareness;
• Allows efficient planning of programme research and therefore the efficient use of funds;
• Mitigates environmental footprint;
• Recognises the value of data beyond the original reason for collection.

Antarctica New Zealand is New Zealand's National Antarctic Data Centre (NADC). The NADC is responsible for ensuring that the appropriate information is collected and entered into the Antarctic Master Directory.