diff --git a/.env b/.env
index 33df6859a..3e1b1b64a 100644
--- a/.env
+++ b/.env
@@ -7,5 +7,5 @@
 #   Leave this set to 0 on the GitHub repo so the unit and 
 #      integration tests do not need to have wheels (until we 
 #      find a convenient way to use wheels on GitHub)
-TAG=0.20
+TAG=0.21a0
 USE_WHEELS=1
diff --git a/lab/lab.js b/lab/lab.js
index 76859382b..dc8aa37e5 100644
--- a/lab/lab.js
+++ b/lab/lab.js
@@ -640,8 +640,10 @@ app.delete('/api/v1/datasets/:id', async (req, res, next) => {
             return res.status(404).send({ message: 'dataset ' + req.params.id + ' not found'});
         }
 
-        if (dataset.ai && (dataset.ai.status == recommenderStatus.RUNNING || dataset.ai.status == recommenderStatus.INITIALIZING)) {
-            return res.status(409).send({message: 'cannot delete dataset, recommender running'});
+        // if (dataset.ai && (dataset.ai.status == recommenderStatus.RUNNING || dataset.ai.status == recommenderStatus.INITIALIZING)) {
+        if (dataset.ai && ['on', 'requested'].some(status => dataset.ai.status === status)) {
+            console.log('cannot delete dataset, AI is enabled');
+            return res.status(409).send({message: 'cannot delete dataset, AI is enabled'});
         }
         
         const dataset_file_id = db.toObjectID(dataset.files[0]._id);
@@ -654,9 +656,11 @@ app.delete('/api/v1/datasets/:id', async (req, res, next) => {
         ]}
 
         let experiments = await db.experiments.find(query).toArrayAsync();
-        let runningExp = experiments.find(exp => exp._status == 'running');
+        console.log(experiments);
+        let runningExp = experiments.find(exp => ['running', 'pending', 'suggested'].some(status => exp._status === status));
 
         if (runningExp) {
+            console.log('cannot delete dataset, experiments running');
             return res.status(409).send({message: 'cannot delete dataset, experiments running'});
         }
 
diff --git a/tests/integration/jest/machineApi.test.ts b/tests/integration/jest/machineApi.test.ts
index 7fd2d74f5..f20cc6242 100644
--- a/tests/integration/jest/machineApi.test.ts
+++ b/tests/integration/jest/machineApi.test.ts
@@ -373,6 +373,73 @@ describe('machine', () => {
 			expect(experimentResult._status).toEqual('success')
 		})
 
+		it('Test that a dataset cannot be deleted while running experiments', async () => {
+			// submit experiment, reuse dataset_result from previous test
+			let dataset_id = dataset_result.dataset_id;
+			let algoName = 'LogisticRegression'
+			let algoParams = {
+				"penalty": "l1",
+				"C": 1.0,
+				"dual": false,
+				"dataset": dataset_id
+			};
+			// get algorithms
+			var algorithms = await labApi.fetchAlgorithms();
+			expect(algorithms.length).toBeGreaterThanOrEqual(util.MIN_EXPECTED_LAB_ALGO_COUNT);
+			var algoId = algorithms.find(function(element) { return element.name == algoName; })._id;
+			expect(algoId).toBeTruthy();
+
+			// submit a simple experiment
+			try {
+				var submitResult = await labApi.submitExperiment(algoId, algoParams);
+			} catch (e) {
+				console.log("submit experiment exception")
+				var json = await e.response.json();
+				expect(json).toBeFalsy();
+				expect(e).toBeFalsy();
+			}
+
+			expect(submitResult).toBeTruthy();
+
+			// expect that the experiment started running
+			var experimentResult = await labApi.fetchExperiment(submitResult._id)
+			//console.log("experimentResults: ", experimentResults)
+			expect(experimentResult._status).toBeTruthy()
+			expect(experimentResult._status).toEqual('running')
+
+			// delete dataset
+			let delete_dataset_result
+			try {
+				delete_dataset_result = await labApi.deleteDataset(dataset_id);
+			} catch (e) {
+				console.log('delete_dataset_result exception', e);
+				var json = await e.response.json()
+				expect(json).toBeTruthy()
+				expect(e.response.status).toEqual(409);
+			}
+
+			expect(delete_dataset_result).toBeFalsy();
+
+			// check that the experiment continued running and finished successfully
+			// wait for the experiment to finish running, probably a better way to do this then delay...
+			var count = 0
+			console.log("starting timeout...")
+			// while (experimentResult._status === ('running') && count < 10) {
+			while (experimentResult._status === ('running') && count < 30) {
+				util.delay(10000)
+				count = count + 1
+				experimentResult = await labApi.fetchExperiment(experimentResult._id)
+				console.log("experimentResult._status, count (" + count + "): ", experimentResult._status)
+			}
+			console.log("finished timeout...")
+
+			// check that the expected results are there
+			//console.log("experimentResult: ", experimentResult)
+			expect(experimentResult._status).toBeTruthy()
+			expect(experimentResult._status).toEqual('success')
+
+		})
+
         it('Test the package install API endpoint with good package.', async () => {
             var labCodeInstall = await labApi.postPackageInstall({ command: 'install', packages: ['numpy'] })
             expect(labCodeInstall.exec_results.code).toEqual(0)