diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index 8a0c1c3bcaa97cf026e7cb4e720219f4be409e64..62d1eb0a7da63148007c6b5c07ec6450f3c4f3a9 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ before_script:
   - module load python/3.6.4-anaconda
   - pip install --user attrs==20.3.0 pytest==6.2.2 pytest-pythonpath==0.7.3 pytest-cov==2.11.1
   - module load singularity/3.5.3
+  - export SINGULARITY_CACHEDIR=/project/BICF/BICF_Core/shared/gudmap/singularity_cache/
   - module load nextflow/20.01.0
   - ln -sfn /project/BICF/BICF_Core/shared/gudmap/test_data/* ./test_data/
   - mkdir -p ~/.deriva