diff --git a/ansible/roles/doi-service/templates/doi-service-config.yml b/ansible/roles/doi-service/templates/doi-service-config.yml
index e11c9f561..7e545a9ed 100644
--- a/ansible/roles/doi-service/templates/doi-service-config.yml
+++ b/ansible/roles/doi-service/templates/doi-service-config.yml
@@ -82,7 +82,7 @@ file:
 googleAnalyticsId: UA-4355440-1
 
 dataSource:
-  url: jdbc:postgresql://{{ doi_db_hostname }}/{{ doi_db_name }}
+  url: jdbc:postgresql://{{ doi_db_hostname }}/{{ doi_db_name }}?autoReconnect=true&connectTimeout=0&useUnicode=true&characterEncoding=UTF-8
   username: {{ doi_db_user }}
   password: {{ doi_db_password }}