diff --git a/Project.toml b/Project.toml
index b87717fa..29b37313 100644
--- a/Project.toml
+++ b/Project.toml
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ authors = ["Climate Modeling Alliance"]
 version = "0.0.1"
 
 [deps]
+ClimaComms = "3a4d1b5c-c61d-41fd-a00a-5873ba7a1b0d"
 Distributions = "31c24e10-a181-5473-b8eb-7969acd0382f"
 EnsembleKalmanProcesses = "aa8a2aa5-91d8-4396-bcef-d4f2ec43552d"
 JLD2 = "033835bb-8acc-5ee8-8aae-3f567f8a3819"
@@ -19,6 +20,7 @@ CESExt = "CalibrateEmulateSample"
 
 [compat]
 CalibrateEmulateSample = "0.5"
+ClimaComms = "0.6"
 Distributions = "0.25"
 EnsembleKalmanProcesses = "1"
 JLD2 = "0.4"
diff --git a/src/slurm.jl b/src/slurm.jl
index 77074487..80ba3431 100644
--- a/src/slurm.jl
+++ b/src/slurm.jl
@@ -37,6 +37,8 @@ function generate_sbatch_script(
     $module_load_str
 
     srun --output=$member_log --open-mode=append julia --project=$experiment_dir -e '
+    import ClimaComms: @import_required_backends
+    @import_required_backends
     import ClimaCalibrate as CAL
     iteration = $iter; member = $member
     model_interface = "$model_interface"; include(model_interface)
diff --git a/test/slurm_unit_tests.jl b/test/slurm_unit_tests.jl
index 7e45b649..15dac18a 100644
--- a/test/slurm_unit_tests.jl
+++ b/test/slurm_unit_tests.jl
@@ -47,6 +47,8 @@ module purge
 module load climacommon/2024_05_27
 
 srun --output=test/iteration_001/member_001/model_log.txt --open-mode=append julia --project=exp/dir -e '
+import ClimaComms: @import_required_backends
+@import_required_backends
 import ClimaCalibrate as CAL
 iteration = 1; member = 1
 model_interface = "model_interface.jl"; include(model_interface)