diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index 7ffd1306..644e29e6 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ before_script:
   # install dependencies for packages
   - apt-get install -y wget locales libxml2-dev libssl-dev libcurl4-openssl-dev zlib1g-dev > /dev/null
   # recent pandoc
-  - wget --quiet https://github.com/jgm/pandoc/releases/download/2.6/pandoc-2.6-1-amd64.deb
+  - wget --quiet https://github.com/jgm/pandoc/releases/download/2.7.2/pandoc-2.7.2-1-amd64.deb
   - dpkg -i pandoc*.deb
   - rm pandoc*.deb
   # set R system language
@@ -103,6 +103,10 @@ coverage:
   stage: test
   allow_failure: true
   when: on_success
+  cache:
+    key: "$CI_COMMIT_REF_SLUG"
+    paths:
+      - installed_deps/
   only:
     - premaster
     - master
@@ -117,6 +121,10 @@ coverage:
 pages:
   stage: deploy
   when: always
+  cache:
+    key: "$CI_COMMIT_REF_SLUG"
+    paths:
+      - installed_deps/
   only:
     - master
   script: