diff --git a/CI/hortense_EESSI_ss/ci_config.sh b/CI/hortense_EESSI_ss/ci_config.sh
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..1fd49eb6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/CI/hortense_EESSI_ss/ci_config.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+# Configurable items
+if [ -z "${TEST_SUITE_PARTITION}" ]; then
+   echo "You have to indicate on which partition the test-suite will run on vsc-Hortense"
+   echo "This environment variable needs to be set TEST_SUITE_PARTITION=cpu_rome_256gb"
+   echo "Can only set to 'cpu_rome_256gb' untill new functionality of 'sched_options' is part of"
+   echo "the ReFrame release https://github.com/reframe-hpc/reframe/issues/2970"
+   exit 1
+fi
+
+if [ -z "${REFRAME_ARGS}" ]; then
+    REFRAME_ARGS="--tag CI --tag 1_core --system hortense:${TEST_SUITE_PARTITION}"
+fi
+
+if [ -z "${UNSET_MODULEPATH}" ]; then
+    export UNSET_MODULEPATH=False
+    module --force purge
+fi
+
+if [ -z "${USE_EESSI_SOFTWARE_STACK}" ]; then
+    export USE_EESSI_SOFTWARE_STACK=True
+fi
+
+if [ -z "${RFM_CONFIG_FILES}" ]; then
+    export RFM_CONFIG_FILES="${TEMPDIR}/test-suite/config/vsc_hortense.py"
+fi
+
+if [ -z "${SET_LOCAL_MODULE_ENV}"]; then
+    export SET_LOCAL_MODULE_ENV=True
+fi
+
+if [ -z "${LOCAL_MODULES}"]; then
+    export LOCAL_MODULES="env/vsc/dodrio/${TEST_SUITE_PARTITION} env/slurm/dodrio/${TEST_SUITE_PARTITION}"
+fi
diff --git a/CI/hortense_local_ss/ci_config.sh b/CI/hortense_local_ss/ci_config.sh
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..24667b2c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/CI/hortense_local_ss/ci_config.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+# Configurable items
+if [ -z "${TEST_SUITE_PARTITION}" ]; then
+   echo "You have to indicate on which partition the test-suite will run on vsc-Hortense"
+   echo "This environment variable needs to be set TEST_SUITE_PARTITION=cpu_rome_256gb"
+   echo "Can only set to 'cpu_rome_256gb' untill new functionality of 'sched_options' is part of"
+   echo "the ReFrame release https://github.com/reframe-hpc/reframe/issues/2970"
+   exit 1
+fi
+
+if [ -z "${REFRAME_ARGS}" ]; then
+    REFRAME_ARGS="--tag CI --tag 1_node|2_nodes --system hortense:${TEST_SUITE_PARTITION}"
+fi
+
+if [ -z "${USE_EESSI_SOFTWARE_STACK}" ]; then
+    export USE_EESSI_SOFTWARE_STACK=False
+fi
+
+if [ -z "${RFM_CONFIG_FILES}" ]; then
+    export RFM_CONFIG_FILES="${TEMPDIR}/test-suite/config/vsc_hortense.py"
+fi
+
+if [ -z "${UNSET_MODULEPATH}" ]; then
+    export UNSET_MODULEPATH=False
+    module --force purge
+fi
+
+if [ -z "${SET_LOCAL_MODULE_ENV}"]; then
+    export SET_LOCAL_MODULE_ENV=True
+fi
+
+if [ -z "${LOCAL_MODULES}"]; then
+    export LOCAL_MODULES="cluster/dodrio/${TEST_SUITE_PARTITION}"
+fi
diff --git a/CI/run_reframe.sh b/CI/run_reframe.sh
index eda506f0..e458ffc2 100755
--- a/CI/run_reframe.sh
+++ b/CI/run_reframe.sh
@@ -25,13 +25,15 @@ if [ ! -f "${CI_CONFIG}" ]; then
     exit 1
 fi
 
+# Create temporary directory
+if [ -z "${TEMPDIR}" ]; then
+    TEMPDIR=$(mktemp --directory --tmpdir=/tmp  -t rfm.XXXXXXXXXX)
+fi
+
 # Set the CI configuration for this system
 source "${CI_CONFIG}"
 
 # Set default configuration, but let anything set by CI_CONFIG take priority
-if [ -z "${TEMPDIR}" ]; then
-    TEMPDIR=$(mktemp --directory --tmpdir=/tmp  -t rfm.XXXXXXXXXX)
-fi
 if [ -z "${REFRAME_ARGS}" ]; then
     REFRAME_ARGS="--tag CI --tag 1_node"
 fi
@@ -50,11 +52,14 @@ fi
 if [ -z "${EESSI_TESTSUITE_BRANCH}" ]; then
     EESSI_TESTSUITE_BRANCH='v0.4.0'
 fi
-if [ -z "${EESSI_CVMFS_REPO}" ]; then
-    export EESSI_CVMFS_REPO=/cvmfs/software.eessi.io
-fi
-if [ -z "${EESSI_VERSION}" ]; then
-    export EESSI_VERSION=2023.06
+if [ -z "${USE_EESSI_SOFTWARE_STACK}" ] || [ "$USE_EESSI_SOFTWARE_STACK" == "True" ]; then
+    export USE_EESSI_SOFTWARE_STACK=True
+    if [ -z "${EESSI_CVMFS_REPO}" ]; then
+        export EESSI_CVMFS_REPO=/cvmfs/software.eessi.io
+    fi
+    if [ -z "${EESSI_VERSION}" ]; then
+        export EESSI_VERSION=2023.06
+    fi
 fi
 if [ -z "${RFM_CONFIG_FILES}" ]; then
     export RFM_CONFIG_FILES="${TEMPDIR}/test-suite/config/${EESSI_CI_SYSTEM_NAME}.py"
@@ -73,6 +78,12 @@ if [ -z "${REFRAME_TIMEOUT}" ]; then
     # This will prevent multiple ReFrame runs from piling up and exceeding the quota on our Magic Castle clusters
     export REFRAME_TIMEOUT=1430m
 fi
+if [ -z "${UNSET_MODULEPATH}" ]; then
+    export UNSET_MODULEPATH=True
+fi
+if [ -z "${SET_LOCAL_MODULE_ENV}" ]; then
+    export SET_LOCAL_MODULE_ENV=False
+fi
 
 # Create virtualenv for ReFrame using system python
 python3 -m venv "${TEMPDIR}"/reframe_venv
@@ -92,10 +103,25 @@ echo "Cloning EESSI repo: git clone ${EESSI_CLONE_ARGS}"
 git clone ${EESSI_CLONE_ARGS}
 export PYTHONPATH="${PYTHONPATH}":"${TEMPDIR}"/test-suite/
 
+# Unset the ModulePath on systems where it is required
+if [ "$UNSET_MODULEPATH" == "True" ]; then
+    unset MODULEPATH
+fi
+
+# Set local module environment
+if [ "$SET_LOCAL_MODULE_ENV" == "True" ]; then
+    if [ -z "${LOCAL_MODULES}" ]; then
+        echo "You have to add the name of the module in the ci_config.sh file of your system"
+        exit 1
+    fi
+    module load "${LOCAL_MODULES}"
+fi
+
 # Start the EESSI environment
-unset MODULEPATH
-eessi_init_path="${EESSI_CVMFS_REPO}"/versions/"${EESSI_VERSION}"/init/bash
-source "${eessi_init_path}"
+if [ "$USE_EESSI_SOFTWARE_STACK" == "True" ]; then
+    eessi_init_path="${EESSI_CVMFS_REPO}"/versions/"${EESSI_VERSION}"/init/bash
+    source "${eessi_init_path}"
+fi
 
 # Needed in order to make sure the reframe from our TEMPDIR is first on the PATH,
 # prior to the one shipped with the 2021.12 compat layer
@@ -119,6 +145,9 @@ echo "ReFrame check search path: ${RFM_CHECK_SEARCH_PATH}"
 echo "ReFrame check search recursive: ${RFM_CHECK_SEARCH_RECURSIVE}"
 echo "ReFrame prefix: ${RFM_PREFIX}"
 echo "ReFrame args: ${REFRAME_ARGS}"
+echo "Using EESSI: ${USE_EESSI_SOFTWARE_STACK}"
+echo "Using local software stack ${SET_LOCAL_MODULE_ENV}"
+echo "MODULEPATH: ${MODULEPATH}"
 echo ""
 
 # List tests
diff --git a/config/vsc_hortense.py b/config/vsc_hortense.py
index ddd7c1c8..8ad36b75 100644
--- a/config/vsc_hortense.py
+++ b/config/vsc_hortense.py
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@
 #    reframe --detect-host-topology \
 #        ~/.reframe/topology/hortense-{partition_name}/processor.json
 # ```
+import os
 
 from reframe.core.backends import register_launcher
 from reframe.core.launchers import JobLauncher
@@ -40,6 +41,16 @@ def command(self, job):
         return ['mympirun', '--hybrid', str(job.num_tasks_per_node)]
 
 
+eessi_cvmfs_repo = os.getenv('EESSI_CVMFS_REPO', None)
+if eessi_cvmfs_repo is not None:
+    prepare_eessi_init = "module --force purge"
+    launcher = "mpirun"
+    mpi_module = "env/vsc/dodrio/{}"
+else:
+    prepare_eessi_init = ""
+    launcher = "mympirun"
+    mpi_module = "vsc-mympirun"
+
 site_configuration = {
     'systems': [
         {
@@ -49,15 +60,15 @@ def command(self, job):
             'modules_system': 'lmod',
             'partitions': [
                 {
-                    'name': 'cpu_rome_256gb',
+                    'name': 'cpu_rome',
                     'scheduler': 'slurm',
-                    'prepare_cmds': [common_eessi_init()],
+                    'prepare_cmds': [prepare_eessi_init, common_eessi_init()],
                     'access': hortense_access + ['--partition=cpu_rome'],
                     'environs': ['default'],
                     'descr': 'CPU nodes (AMD Rome, 256GiB RAM)',
                     'max_jobs': 20,
-                    'launcher': 'mympirun',
-                    'modules': ['vsc-mympirun'],
+                    'launcher': launcher,
+                    'modules': [mpi_module.format('cpu_rome')],
                     'resources': [
                         {
                             'name': 'memory',
@@ -74,15 +85,15 @@ def command(self, job):
                     },
                 },
                 {
-                    'name': 'cpu_rome_512gb',
+                    'name': 'cpu_rome_512',
                     'scheduler': 'slurm',
-                    'prepare_cmds': [common_eessi_init()],
+                    'prepare_cmds': [prepare_eessi_init, common_eessi_init()],
                     'access': hortense_access + ['--partition=cpu_rome_512'],
                     'environs': ['default'],
                     'descr': 'CPU nodes (AMD Rome, 512GiB RAM)',
                     'max_jobs': 20,
-                    'launcher': 'mympirun',
-                    'modules': ['vsc-mympirun'],
+                    'launcher': launcher,
+                    'modules': [mpi_module.format('cpu_rome_512')],
                     'resources': [
                         {
                             'name': 'memory',
@@ -101,13 +112,13 @@ def command(self, job):
                 {
                     'name': 'cpu_milan',
                     'scheduler': 'slurm',
-                    'prepare_cmds': [common_eessi_init()],
+                    'prepare_cmds': [prepare_eessi_init, common_eessi_init()],
                     'access': hortense_access + ['--partition=cpu_milan'],
                     'environs': ['default'],
                     'descr': 'CPU nodes (AMD Milan, 256GiB RAM)',
                     'max_jobs': 20,
-                    'launcher': 'mympirun',
-                    'modules': ['vsc-mympirun'],
+                    'launcher': launcher,
+                    'modules': [mpi_module.format('cpu_milan')],
                     'resources': [
                         {
                             'name': 'memory',
@@ -124,15 +135,15 @@ def command(self, job):
                     },
                 },
                 {
-                    'name': 'gpu_rome_a100_40gb',
+                    'name': 'gpu_rome_a100_40',
                     'scheduler': 'slurm',
-                    'prepare_cmds': [common_eessi_init()],
+                    'prepare_cmds': [prepare_eessi_init, common_eessi_init()],
                     'access': hortense_access + ['--partition=gpu_rome_a100_40'],
                     'environs': ['default'],
                     'descr': 'GPU nodes (A100 40GB)',
                     'max_jobs': 20,
-                    'launcher': 'mympirun',
-                    'modules': ['vsc-mympirun'],
+                    'launcher': launcher,
+                    'modules': [mpi_module.format('gpu_rome_a100_40')],
                     'features': [
                         FEATURES[GPU],
                     ] + list(SCALES.keys()),
@@ -161,15 +172,15 @@ def command(self, job):
 
                 },
                 {
-                    'name': 'gpu_rome_a100_80gb',
+                    'name': 'gpu_rome_a100_80',
                     'scheduler': 'slurm',
-                    'prepare_cmds': [common_eessi_init()],
+                    'prepare_cmds': [prepare_eessi_init, common_eessi_init()],
                     'access': hortense_access + ['--partition=gpu_rome_a100_80'],
                     'environs': ['default'],
                     'descr': 'GPU nodes (A100 80GB)',
                     'max_jobs': 20,
-                    'launcher': 'mympirun',
-                    'modules': ['vsc-mympirun'],
+                    'launcher': launcher,
+                    'modules': [mpi_module.format('gpu_rome_a100_80')],
                     'features': [
                         FEATURES[GPU],
                     ] + list(SCALES.keys()),