Norwegian use of the Planck LFI experiment and QUIET

The European Planck space mission was launched in May 2009 and is mapping in detail the Cosmic Microwave Background with sensitivity and resolution unreachable by any other foreseen experiments, making possible addressing many of the most fundamental ques tions of cosmology. Based on the commitment to fund Norwegian participation in the Planck project made by the Research Council of Norway in March 1999, the core of the Electrical Ground Support Equipment for the LFI instrument was built by Norwegian indu stry, securing full data rights for our group. Simultaneously, we have built up the necessary expertise on working with such data, as shown by our results from the WMAP data. Funded by ESA's PRODEX programme, we have also joined the QUIET ground based pol arization experiment, that will put us in an even better position for the scientific use of the Planck data. This proposal is for funding the Planck group through the data analysis and proprietary periods, by continued funding of a postdoc, writing off necessary investments in High Performance Computing hardware and paying for travel etc. This will maintain our strong participation in these proejcts and will lead to a strongly improved understanding of the universe as a whole.