diff --git a/scripts/install_R_deps.sh b/scripts/install_R_deps.sh
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..2ec1c144
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/install_R_deps.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,62 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+
+set -e
+
+R_VERSION=${1:-${R_VERSION:-"latest"}}
+
+# shellcheck source=/dev/null
+source /etc/os-release
+
+apt-get update
+apt-get -y install locales
+
+## Configure default locale
+LANG=${LANG:-"en_US.UTF-8"}
+/usr/sbin/locale-gen --lang "${LANG}"
+/usr/sbin/update-locale --reset LANG="${LANG}"
+
+export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
+
+R_HOME=${R_HOME:-"/usr/local/lib/R"}
+
+READLINE_VERSION=8
+if [ "${UBUNTU_CODENAME}" == "bionic" ]; then
+    READLINE_VERSION=7
+fi
+
+apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
+    bash-completion \
+    ca-certificates \
+    file \
+    fonts-texgyre \
+    g++ \
+    gfortran \
+    gsfonts \
+    libblas-dev \
+    libbz2-* \
+    libcurl4 \
+    "libicu[0-9][0-9]" \
+    liblapack-dev \
+    libpcre2* \
+    libjpeg-turbo* \
+    libpangocairo-* \
+    libpng16* \
+    "libreadline${READLINE_VERSION}" \
+    libtiff* \
+    liblzma* \
+    make \
+    tzdata \
+    unzip \
+    zip \
+    zlib1g
+
+
+mkdir -p "${R_HOME}/site-library" 
+chown root:staff "${R_HOME}/site-library"
+chmod g+ws "${R_HOME}/site-library"
+echo "R_LIBS=\${R_LIBS-'${R_HOME}/site-library:${R_HOME}/library'}" >>"${R_HOME}/etc/Renviron.site"
+
+echo "PATH=${PATH}" >>"${R_HOME}/etc/Renviron.site"
+
+
diff --git a/scripts/setup_R.sh b/scripts/setup_R.sh
index df02a859..cba9a35f 100755
--- a/scripts/setup_R.sh
+++ b/scripts/setup_R.sh
@@ -70,7 +70,7 @@ if [ ! -x "$(command -v r)" ]; then
 
     # Clean up
     # shellcheck disable=SC2086
-    # apt-get remove --purge -y ${BUILDDEPS}
+    apt-get remove --purge -y ${BUILDDEPS}
     apt-get autoremove -y
     apt-get autoclean -y
 fi