diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..b8ce57f418905a3890762c7bdcf2ac14310d91e3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+stages:
+  - build
+
+variables:
+  BUILD_ENV_DOCKER_IMAGE: docker-registry.ebrains.eu/esd/tmp:latest
+
+build-spack-env-on-runner:
+  stage: build
+  tags:
+    - esd_image
+  image: $BUILD_ENV_DOCKER_IMAGE
+  script:
+    - /usr/sbin/sysctl user.max_user_namespaces
+    - /usr/sbin/sysctl kernel.unprivileged_userns_clone
+    #- buildah build --isolation=chroot --runtime=crun --network=host --storage-opt="network.network_backend=cni" --storage-opt="overlay.mount_program=/usr/bin/fuse-overlayfs" -f Dockerfile .
+    #- export APPTAINER_VERSION="1.3.6"
+    #- |
+    #  mkdir -p apptainer-install/
+    #  curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/apptainer/apptainer/main/tools/install-unprivileged.sh | bash -s - apptainer-install/
+    - apptainer version
diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..664343b263e17eda0a47ea3a32038a859921ebfd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+FROM ubuntu:20.04
+
+ARG DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
+ENV TZ=Etc/UTC
+
+RUN apt-get update