diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index cd3cb0ae..501c9ce0 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -24,11 +24,12 @@ image                                                      | description
 [tidyverse](https://hub.docker.com/r/rocker/tidyverse)     | Adds tidyverse & devtools                                                                      | [![](https://img.shields.io/docker/pulls/rocker/tidyverse.svg)](https://hub.docker.com/r/rocker/tidyverse)
 [verse](https://hub.docker.com/r/rocker/verse)             | Adds tex & publishing-related packages                                                         | [![](https://img.shields.io/docker/pulls/rocker/verse.svg)](https://hub.docker.com/r/rocker/verse)
 [geospatial](https://hub.docker.com/r/rocker/geospatial)   | Adds geospatial packages on top of 'verse'                                                     | [![](https://img.shields.io/docker/pulls/rocker/geospatial.svg)](https://hub.docker.com/r/rocker/geospatial)
+[ci](https://hub.docker.com/r/rocker/ci)                   | r-ver with system dependencies for tidyverse, verse, and geospatial, no R packages             | [![](https://img.shields.io/docker/pulls/rocker/ci.svg)](https://hub.docker.com/r/rocker/ci)
 [shiny](https://hub.docker.com/r/rocker/shiny)             | Adds shiny server on top of 'r-ver'                                                            | [![](https://img.shields.io/docker/pulls/rocker/shiny.svg)](https://hub.docker.com/r/rocker/shiny)
 [shiny-verse](https://hub.docker.com/r/rocker/shiny-verse) | Adds tidyverse packages on top of 'shiny'                                                      | [![](https://img.shields.io/docker/pulls/rocker/shiny-verse.svg)](https://hub.docker.com/r/rocker/shiny-verse)
 [binder](https://hub.docker.com/r/rocker/binder)           | Adds requirements to 'geospatial' to run repositories on [mybinder.org](https://mybinder.org/) | [![](https://img.shields.io/docker/pulls/rocker/binder.svg)](https://hub.docker.com/r/rocker/binder)
 [cuda](https://hub.docker.com/r/rocker/cuda)               | Adds cuda and Python to 'r-ver' (a.k.a `rocker/r-ver:X.Y.Z-cuda10.1`)                          | [![](https://img.shields.io/docker/pulls/rocker/cuda.svg)](https://hub.docker.com/r/rocker/cuda)
-[ml](https://hub.docker.com/r/rocker/ml)                   | Adds rstudio server, tiyverse, devtools to 'cuda'                                              | [![](https://img.shields.io/docker/pulls/rocker/ml.svg)](https://hub.docker.com/r/rocker/ml)
+[ml](https://hub.docker.com/r/rocker/ml)                   | Adds rstudio server, tidyverse, devtools to 'cuda'                                             | [![](https://img.shields.io/docker/pulls/rocker/ml.svg)](https://hub.docker.com/r/rocker/ml)
 [ml-verse](https://hub.docker.com/r/rocker/ml-verse)       | Adds tex & publishing-related packages & geospatial packages to 'ml'                           | [![](https://img.shields.io/docker/pulls/rocker/ml-verse.svg)](https://hub.docker.com/r/rocker/ml-verse)
 
 **For more information on public container images, please see [the Wiki of this repository](https://github.com/rocker-org/rocker-versioned2/wiki).**
diff --git a/scripts/install_renv_sysdeps.sh b/scripts/install_renv_sysdeps.sh
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..40d6601f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/install_renv_sysdeps.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,118 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+set -e
+
+## build ARGs
+NCPUS=${NCPUS:--1}
+
+# always set this for scripts but don't declare as ENV..
+export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
+export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/texlive/bin/x86_64-linux/
+
+apt-get update
+
+#----- SysDeps for Tidyverse-----
+apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
+    file \
+    git \
+    libapparmor1 \
+    libgc1c2 \
+    libclang-dev \
+    libcurl4-openssl-dev \
+    libedit2 \
+    libobjc4 \
+    libssl-dev \
+    libpq5 \
+    lsb-release \
+    psmisc \
+    procps \
+    python-setuptools \
+    pwgen \
+    sudo \
+    wget
+
+#----- SysDeps for Verse-----
+apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
+    cmake \
+    default-jdk \
+    fonts-roboto \
+    ghostscript \
+    hugo \
+    less \
+    libbz2-dev \
+    libglpk-dev \
+    libgmp3-dev \
+    libfribidi-dev \
+    libharfbuzz-dev \
+    libhunspell-dev \
+    libicu-dev \
+    liblzma-dev \
+    libmagick++-dev \
+    libopenmpi-dev \
+    libpcre2-dev \
+    libv8-dev \
+    libxml2-dev\
+    libxslt1-dev \
+    libzmq3-dev \
+    qpdf \
+    texinfo \
+    software-properties-common \
+    vim
+
+# librdf0-dev depends on libcurl4-gnutils-dev instead of libcurl4-openssl-dev...
+# So: we can build the redland package bindings and then swap back to libcurl-openssl-dev... (ick)
+# explicitly install runtime library sub-deps of librdf0-dev so they are not auto-removed.
+apt-get install -y librdf0-dev
+install2.r --error --skipinstalled -n $NCPUS redland
+apt-get install -y \
+	libcurl4-openssl-dev \
+	libxslt-dev \
+	librdf0 \
+	redland-utils \
+	rasqal-utils \
+	raptor2-utils \
+        && apt-get remove -y systemd \
+	&& apt-get -y autoremove
+
+apt-get install -y libgit2-dev libcurl4-openssl-dev
+
+## Add LaTeX, rticles and bookdown support
+wget "https://travis-bin.yihui.name/texlive-local.deb" \
+  && dpkg -i texlive-local.deb \
+  && rm texlive-local.deb
+
+## Install texlive and pandoc
+/rocker_scripts/install_texlive.sh
+/rocker_scripts/install_pandoc.sh
+
+#----- SysDeps for Geospatial-----
+
+apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
+    gdal-bin \
+    lbzip2 \
+    libfftw3-dev \
+    libgdal-dev \
+    libgeos-dev \
+    libgsl0-dev \
+    libgl1-mesa-dev \
+    libglu1-mesa-dev \
+    libhdf4-alt-dev \
+    libhdf5-dev \
+    libjq-dev \
+    libpq-dev \
+    libproj-dev \
+    libprotobuf-dev \
+    libnetcdf-dev \
+    libsqlite3-dev \
+    libudunits2-dev \
+    lsb-release \
+    netcdf-bin \
+    postgis \
+    protobuf-compiler \
+    sqlite3 \
+    tk-dev \
+    unixodbc-dev
+
+
+#----- Cleanup -----
+rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
+