diff --git a/.github/workflows/root-ci-config/buildconfig/alma9.txt b/.github/workflows/root-ci-config/buildconfig/alma9.txt
index e28883917904a..ebd18850fbd3c 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/root-ci-config/buildconfig/alma9.txt
+++ b/.github/workflows/root-ci-config/buildconfig/alma9.txt
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
+BLAS_LIBRARIES=/usr/lib64/libblas.so
 builtin_nlohmannjson=ON
 builtin_vdt=On
 tmva-sofie=On
-BLA_VENDOR=OpenBLAS
diff --git a/cmake/modules/SearchInstalledSoftware.cmake b/cmake/modules/SearchInstalledSoftware.cmake
index eef248d0de62d..171bfdc871290 100644
--- a/cmake/modules/SearchInstalledSoftware.cmake
+++ b/cmake/modules/SearchInstalledSoftware.cmake
@@ -1549,6 +1549,13 @@ endif()
 #---Check for protobuf-------------------------------------------------------------------
 
 if(tmva-sofie)
+  if(testing)
+    message(STATUS "Looking for BLAS as an optional testing dependency of TMVA-SOFIE")
+    find_package(BLAS)
+    if(NOT BLAS_FOUND)
+      message(WARNING "BLAS not found: TMVA-SOFIE will not be fully tested")
+    endif()
+  endif()
   message(STATUS "Looking for Protobuf")
   set(protobuf_MODULE_COMPATIBLE TRUE)
   find_package(Protobuf CONFIG)
diff --git a/tmva/sofie/test/CMakeLists.txt b/tmva/sofie/test/CMakeLists.txt
index 499ca7fea7368..29e9026aa4d75 100644
--- a/tmva/sofie/test/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/tmva/sofie/test/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -60,12 +60,11 @@ add_custom_command(TARGET SofieCompileModels_ONNX POST_BUILD
 
 
 # Creating a Google Test
-if (tmva-cpu)  # we need BLAS for compiling the models
+if (BLAS_FOUND)  # we need BLAS for compiling the models
 ROOT_ADD_GTEST(TestCustomModelsFromONNX TestCustomModelsFromONNX.cxx
   LIBRARIES
     ROOTTMVASofie
-    ${BLAS_LINKER_FLAGS}
-    ${BLAS_LIBRARIES}
+    BLAS::BLAS
   INCLUDE_DIRS
     ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}
 )
@@ -103,12 +102,11 @@ COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E env ROOTIGNOREPREFIX=1 ./emitFromROOT
 		USES_TERMINAL )
 
 # Creating a Google Test for Serialisation of RModel
-if (tmva-cpu)
+if (BLAS_FOUND)
 ROOT_ADD_GTEST(TestCustomModelsFromROOT TestCustomModelsFromROOT.cxx
   LIBRARIES
     ROOTTMVASofie
-    ${BLAS_LINKER_FLAGS}
-    ${BLAS_LIBRARIES}
+    BLAS::BLAS
   INCLUDE_DIRS
     ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}
 )
@@ -128,13 +126,12 @@ if(PY_TORCH_FOUND AND PY_ONNX_FOUND)
   configure_file(LinearModelGenerator.py  LinearModelGenerator.py COPYONLY)
   configure_file(RecurrentModelGenerator.py  RecurrentModelGenerator.py COPYONLY)
 
-if (tmva-cpu)
+if (BLAS_FOUND)
   ROOT_ADD_GTEST(TestSofieModels TestSofieModels.cxx
     LIBRARIES
       ROOTTMVASofie
       ROOTTMVASofieParser
-      ${BLAS_LINKER_FLAGS}
-      ${BLAS_LIBRARIES}
+      BLAS::BLAS
     INCLUDE_DIRS
       ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}
   )