diff --git a/packages/py-bluepyopt/package.py b/packages/py-bluepyopt/package.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..aa4e5254800dfa5a6d358856fe5637b77dcefbef
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/py-bluepyopt/package.py
@@ -0,0 +1,42 @@
+# Copyright 2013-2024 Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC and other
+# Spack Project Developers. See the top-level COPYRIGHT file for details.
+#
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: (Apache-2.0 OR MIT)
+from spack.package import *
+
+
+class PyBluepyopt(PythonPackage):
+    """Bluebrain Python Optimisation Library"""
+
+    homepage = "https://github.com/BlueBrain/BluePyOpt"
+    pypi = "bluepyopt/bluepyopt-1.9.27.tar.gz"
+
+    license("LGPL-3.0-only")
+
+    # NOTE : while adding new release check pmi_rank.patch compatibility
+    version("1.14.18", sha256="23d6239294d944c8f9d4ea298091bcf243d236735844e1bcba60535a0f520ca8")
+    version("1.14.11", sha256="fe2830c36699a93d2ef9ddef316da42f9c57ca6654c92356eab973ee2298ebf7")
+    version("1.14.4", sha256="7567fd736053250ca06030f67ad93c607b100c2b98df8dc588c26b64cb3e171c")
+
+    # patch required to avoid hpe-mpi linked mechanism library
+    patch("pmi_rank.patch")
+
+    variant("scoop", default=False, description="Use BluePyOpt together with py-scoop")
+
+    depends_on("py-setuptools", type="build")
+    depends_on("py-numpy@1.6:", type=("build", "run"))
+    depends_on("py-pandas@0.18:", type=("build", "run"))
+    depends_on("py-deap@1.3.3:", type=("build", "run"))
+    depends_on("py-efel@2.13:", type=("build", "run"))
+    depends_on("py-ipyparallel", type=("build", "run"))
+    depends_on("py-pickleshare@0.7.3:", type=("build", "run"))
+    depends_on("py-jinja2@2.8:", type=("build", "run"))
+    depends_on("py-future", type=("build", "run"))
+    depends_on("py-pebble@4.6:", type=("build", "run"))
+    depends_on("py-scoop@0.7:", type=("build", "run"), when="+scoop")
+    depends_on("neuron@7.4:", type=("build", "run"), when="@:1.14.4")
+    depends_on("neuron@7.8:", type=("build", "run"), when="@1.14.11:")
+
+    def setup_run_environment(self, env):
+        env.unset("PMI_RANK")
+        env.set("NEURON_INIT_MPI", "0")
diff --git a/packages/py-bluepyopt/pmi_rank.patch b/packages/py-bluepyopt/pmi_rank.patch
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..21a73849b2868389f5e05d9670adc0fb18fadab5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/py-bluepyopt/pmi_rank.patch
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+diff --git a/bluepyopt/ephys/simulators.py b/bluepyopt/ephys/simulators.py
+index e71ad8b..3c93237 100644
+--- a/bluepyopt/ephys/simulators.py
++++ b/bluepyopt/ephys/simulators.py
+@@ -89,6 +89,12 @@ class NrnSimulator(object):
+             NrnSimulator._nrn_disable_banner()
+             self.banner_disabled = True
+ 
++        # certain mpi libraries (hpe-mpt) use PMI_RANK env variable to initialize
++        # MPI before calling MPI_Init (which is undesirable). Unset this variable
++        # if exist to avoid issue with loading neuron and mechanism library.
++        if 'PMI_RANK' in os.environ:
++            os.environ.pop("PMI_RANK")
++
+         import neuron  # NOQA
+ 
+         return neuron
diff --git a/packages/py-snudda/package.py b/packages/py-snudda/package.py
index 97b72292dd4e677db105d0a5c86b30517c901994..8d0ca3d80ac52b0d889b54332643d224b4152e09 100644
--- a/packages/py-snudda/package.py
+++ b/packages/py-snudda/package.py
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ class PySnudda(PythonPackage):
     depends_on("unzip",                 type=("build"))
     depends_on("py-setuptools",         type=("build"))
     depends_on("py-importlib-metadata", type=("build","run"))
-    depends_on("py-bluepyopt@1.14.11:", type=("build","run"))
+    depends_on("py-bluepyopt@1.14.18:", type=("build","run"))
     depends_on("py-h5py@3.12.1:",       type=("build","run"))
     depends_on("py-ipyparallel@8.4.1:", type=("build","run"))
     depends_on("py-matplotlib@3.8:",    type=("build","run"))
diff --git a/spack.yaml b/spack.yaml
index b99a827038f34fffb388af454bfc187d263cb07f..809334f9675222c13f945ae0e15cfe24d1aa6a59 100644
--- a/spack.yaml
+++ b/spack.yaml
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ spack:
     - jaxsnn@10.0-a1
     - py-bluepyefe@2.3.6
     - py-bluepymm@0.8.7
-    - py-bluepyopt@1.14.11
+    - py-bluepyopt@1.14.18
     - py-bsb-core@5.0.2
     - py-bsb-hdf5@5.0.2
     - py-bsb-yaml@4.2.2