diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index 0b2b3ddff9e5a94a176be61202901490412ab75b..27d3656175e2d393ad5a30a505036223ef20aefa 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -44,6 +44,52 @@ stages:
 .get-previous-merge-commit-sha: &get-previous-merge-commit-sha
   - previous_merge_commit=$(git --no-pager log --merges HEAD~1 -n 1 --pretty=format:%H)
 
+.merge_request_comparison_setup: &merge_request_comparison_setup
+  ### build test binaries, initial clean for paranoia reasons
+  - make clean
+  - mkdir build
+  - cd build
+  - cmake ..
+  - make -j
+  - mv IVAS_cod ../IVAS_cod_test
+  - mv IVAS_dec ../IVAS_dec_test
+  - cd ..
+  - rm -rf build/*
+
+  ### store the current commit hash
+  - source_branch_commit_sha=$(git rev-parse HEAD)
+
+  ### checkout version to compare against
+  # first delete local target branch to avoid conflicts when branch is cached and there are merge conflicts during fetching
+  # depending on chaching, the branch may not be there, so prevent failure of this command -> should maybe be done smarter later
+  - git branch -D $CI_MERGE_REQUEST_TARGET_BRANCH_NAME || true
+  # needed when depth is lower than the number of commits in the branch
+  - git fetch origin $CI_MERGE_REQUEST_TARGET_BRANCH_NAME:$CI_MERGE_REQUEST_TARGET_BRANCH_NAME
+
+  ### compare to last target branch commit before pipeline was created
+  - target_commit=$(git log $CI_MERGE_REQUEST_TARGET_BRANCH_NAME -1 --oneline --before=${CI_PIPELINE_CREATED_AT} --format=%H)
+  - git checkout $target_commit
+
+  ### build reference binaries
+  - cd build
+  - cmake ..
+  - make -j
+  - mv IVAS_cod ../IVAS_cod_ref
+  - mv IVAS_dec ../IVAS_dec_ref
+  - cd ..
+
+  # rename test binaries back
+  - mv IVAS_cod_test IVAS_cod
+  - mv IVAS_dec_test IVAS_dec
+
+  ### re-checkout the commit from the source branch to have up-to-date self_test.py and scripts/testv (and actually everything)
+  - git checkout $source_branch_commit_sha
+
+.merge-request-comparison-check: &merge-request-comparison-check
+    - if [ $zero_errors != 1 ]; then echo "Run errors encountered!"; exit $EXIT_CODE_FAIL; fi
+    - if [ $exit_code -eq 1 ] && [ $non_be_flag == 0 ]; then echo "Non-bitexact cases without non-BE tag encountered!"; exit $EXIT_CODE_FAIL; fi
+    - if [ $exit_code -eq 1 ] && [ $non_be_flag != 0 ]; then echo "Non-bitexact  cases with non-BE tag encountered"; exit $EXIT_CODE_NON_BE; fi
+    - exit 0
 
 # ---------------------------------------------------------------
 # Job templates
@@ -275,7 +321,7 @@ asan-on-merge-request-linux:
 
 
 # compare bit exactness between target and source branch
-pytest-on-merge-request:
+ivas-pytest-on-merge-request:
   extends: 
     - .test-job-linux
     - .rules-merge-request
@@ -284,85 +330,62 @@ pytest-on-merge-request:
   timeout: "10 minutes"
   script:
     - *print-common-info
-    ### build test binaries, initial clean for paranoia reasons
-    - make clean
-    - mkdir build
-    - cd build
-    - cmake ..
-    - make -j
-    - mv IVAS_cod ../IVAS_cod_test
-    - mv IVAS_dec ../IVAS_dec_test
-    - cd ..
-    - rm -rf build/*
-
-    ### store the current commit hash
-    - source_branch_commit_sha=$(git rev-parse HEAD)
-
-    ### checkout version to compare against
-    # first delete local target branch to avoid conflicts when branch is cached and there are merge conflicts during fetching
-    # depending on chaching, the branch may not be there, so prevent failure of this command -> should maybe be done smarter later
-    - git branch -D $CI_MERGE_REQUEST_TARGET_BRANCH_NAME || true
-    # needed when depth is lower than the number of commits in the branch
-    - git fetch origin $CI_MERGE_REQUEST_TARGET_BRANCH_NAME:$CI_MERGE_REQUEST_TARGET_BRANCH_NAME
-
-    ### compare to last target branch commit before pipeline was created
-    - target_commit=$(git log $CI_MERGE_REQUEST_TARGET_BRANCH_NAME -1 --oneline --before=${CI_PIPELINE_CREATED_AT} --format=%H)
-    - git checkout $target_commit
-
-    ### build reference binaries
-    - cd build
-    - cmake ..
-    - make -j
-    - mv IVAS_cod ../IVAS_cod_ref
-    - mv IVAS_dec ../IVAS_dec_ref
-    - cd ..
-
-    ### re-checkout the commit from the source branch to have up-to-date test scripts and test vectors (and actually everything)
-    - git checkout $source_branch_commit_sha
+    - *merge_request_comparison_setup
 
     # some helper variables - "|| true" to prevent failures from grep not finding anything
-    - evs_non_be_flag=$(echo $CI_MERGE_REQUEST_TITLE | grep -c --ignore-case "\[evs[ -]*non[ -]*be\]") || true
     - non_be_flag=$(echo $CI_MERGE_REQUEST_TITLE | grep -c --ignore-case "\[non[ -]*be\]") || true
-    - expected_nonbe_1=0
-    - expected_nonbe_2=0
-    - fail_1=0
-    - fail_2=0
 
     ### prepare pytest
     # create short test vectors
     - python3 tests/create_short_testvectors.py
-    # rename test binaries back
-    - mv IVAS_cod_test IVAS_cod
-    - mv IVAS_dec_test IVAS_dec
     # create references
     - python3 -m pytest tests -v --update_ref 1 -m create_ref
     - python3 -m pytest tests -v --update_ref 1 -m create_ref_part2
-    - python3 -m pytest tests/test_param_file.py -v --update_ref 1 -m create_ref --param_file scripts/config/self_test_evs.prm
 
     ### run pytest
     - exit_code=0
     - python3 -m pytest tests -v --junit-xml=report-junit.xml || exit_code=$?
     - zero_errors=$(cat report-junit.xml | grep -c 'errors="0"') || true
 
-    - if [ $zero_errors != 1 ]; then echo "Run errors in pytest"; fail_1=1; fi
+    - *merge-request-comparison-check
+
+  allow_failure:
+    exit_codes:
+      - 123
+  artifacts:
+    name: "mr-$CI_MERGE_REQUEST_IID--sha-$CI_COMMIT_SHORT_SHA--stage-$CI_JOB_STAGE--results"
+    when: always
+    paths:
+      - report-junit.xml
+    expose_as: 'pytest ivas results'
+    reports:
+      junit:
+        - report-junit.xml
+
+evs-pytest-on-merge-request:
+  extends: 
+    - .test-job-linux
+    - .rules-merge-request
+  stage: compare
+  needs: [ "build-codec-linux-cmake", "codec-smoke-test" ]
+  timeout: "10 minutes"
+  script:
+    - *print-common-info
+    - *merge_request_comparison_setup
 
-    - if [ $exit_code -eq 1 ] && [ $non_be_flag == 0 ]; then echo "pytest run had failures without non-BE tag encountered"; fail_1=1; fi
-    - if [ $exit_code -eq 1 ] && [ $non_be_flag != 0 ]; then echo "pytest run had failures with non-BE tag encountered"; expected_nonbe_1=1; fi
+    # some helper variables - "|| true" to prevent failures from grep not finding anything
+    - non_be_flag=$(echo $CI_MERGE_REQUEST_TITLE | grep -c --ignore-case "\[evs[ -]*non[ -]*be\]") || true
+
+    ### prepare pytest
+    # create references
+    - python3 -m pytest tests/test_param_file.py -v --update_ref 1 -m create_ref --param_file scripts/config/self_test_evs.prm
 
     ### run pytest for EVS cases
     - exit_code=0
     - python3 -m pytest tests/test_param_file.py -v --param_file scripts/config/self_test_evs.prm --junit-xml=report-junit-evs.xml || exit_code=$?
     - zero_errors=$(cat report-junit-evs.xml | grep -c 'errors="0"') || true
 
-    - if [ $zero_errors != 1 ]; then echo "Run errors in pytest for EVS"; fail_2=1; fi
-
-    - if [ $exit_code -eq 1 ] && [ $evs_non_be_flag == 0 ]; then echo "Non-bitexact EVS cases without EVS-non-BE tag encountered"; fail_2=1; fi
-    - if [ $exit_code -eq 1 ] && [ $evs_non_be_flag != 0 ]; then echo "Non-bitexact EVS cases with EVS-non-BE tag encountered"; expected_nonbe_2=1; fi
-
-    # Check results from both tests
-    - if [ $fail_1 -eq 1 ] || [ $fail_2 -eq 1 ]; then exit $EXIT_CODE_FAIL; fi
-    - if [ $expected_nonbe_1 -eq 1 ] || [ $expected_nonbe_2 -eq 1 ]; then exit $EXIT_CODE_NON_BE; fi
-    - exit 0
+    - *merge-request-comparison-check
 
   allow_failure:
     exit_codes:
@@ -371,12 +394,10 @@ pytest-on-merge-request:
     name: "mr-$CI_MERGE_REQUEST_IID--sha-$CI_COMMIT_SHORT_SHA--stage-$CI_JOB_STAGE--results"
     when: always
     paths:
-      - report-junit.xml
       - report-junit-evs.xml
-    expose_as: 'pytest results'
+    expose_as: 'pytest evs results'
     reports:
       junit:
-        - report-junit.xml
         - report-junit-evs.xml