diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 14d6c11..8ed974f 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -251,6 +251,19 @@ install(
         COMPONENT FANS_Development
 )
 
+# ##############################################################################
+# TESTING
+# ##############################################################################
+
+if (CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR STREQUAL CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR)
+    set(FANS_ENABLE_TESTING_DEFAULT ON)
+endif ()
+option(FANS_ENABLE_TESTING "Enable testing" ${FANS_ENABLE_TESTING_DEFAULT})
+if (FANS_ENABLE_TESTING)
+    enable_testing()
+    add_subdirectory(test)
+endif ()
+
 # ##############################################################################
 # PACKAGING
 # ##############################################################################
diff --git a/test/CMakeLists.txt b/test/CMakeLists.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5969958
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+set(FANS_TEST_INPUT_DIR ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR})
+set(FANS_TEST_OUTPUT_DIR ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR})
+set(FANS_EXECUTABLE $<TARGET_FILE:FANS_main>)
+
+# determine MPI process count. The discretization of the test geometry allows for max. 8 processes.
+set(FANS_N_MPI_PROCESSES_MAX 8)
+cmake_host_system_information(RESULT FANS_CORES_AVAILABLE QUERY NUMBER_OF_PHYSICAL_CORES)
+if (FANS_N_MPI_PROCESSES_MAX LESS FANS_CORES_AVAILABLE)
+    set(FANS_N_MPI_PROCESSES ${FANS_N_MPI_PROCESSES_MAX})
+else()
+    set(FANS_N_MPI_PROCESSES ${FANS_CORES_AVAILABLE})
+endif()
+message(STATUS "Will use ${FANS_N_MPI_PROCESSES} processes for MPI test cases.")
+
+set(FANS_TEST_CASES
+    J2Plasticity
+    LinearElastic
+    LinearThermal
+    PseudoPlastic
+)
+
+list(LENGTH FANS_TEST_CASES N_TESTS)
+math(EXPR N_TESTS "${N_TESTS} - 1")
+
+foreach(N RANGE ${N_TESTS})
+    list(GET FANS_TEST_CASES ${N} FANS_TEST_CASE)
+
+    add_test(
+        NAME ${FANS_TEST_CASE}
+        COMMAND mpiexec -n ${FANS_N_MPI_PROCESSES} ${FANS_EXECUTABLE} input_files/test_${FANS_TEST_CASE}.json ${FANS_TEST_OUTPUT_DIR}/test_${FANS_TEST_CASE}.h5
+        WORKING_DIRECTORY ${FANS_TEST_INPUT_DIR}
+    )
+endforeach()