diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index 4843bd3bf05df7c7f29c629673017eddf0174547..b3f455f0281200b79c7d83f49f42c65578735892 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -101,6 +101,7 @@ stages:
   - prevalidate
   - build
   - test
+  - compare
   - deploy
 
 # ---------------------------------------------------------------
@@ -117,6 +118,24 @@ stages:
     echo "Commit time was $CI_COMMIT_TIMESTAMP"
     date | xargs echo "System time is"
 
+.mr-fetch-target-branch: &mr-fetch-target-branch
+  # 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
+
+.mr-get-target-commit: &mr-get-target-commit # 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)
+
+.get-commits-behind-count: &get-commits-behind-count
+  - echo $CI_COMMIT_SHA
+  - echo $CI_MERGE_REQUEST_TARGET_BRANCH_NAME
+  - commits_behind_count=$(git rev-list --count $CI_COMMIT_SHA..origin/$CI_MERGE_REQUEST_TARGET_BRANCH_NAME)
+
+.check-commits-behind-count-in-compare-jobs: &check-commits-behind-count-in-compare-jobs
+  - if [ $commits_behind_count -ne 0 ]; then echo "Your branch is not up-to-date with main -> Compare tests will not run as they can contain false negatives this way.\nMain might have changed during your pipeline run. Run 'git merge origin/main' to update."; exit 1; fi
+
 .build-reference-binaries: &build-reference-binaries
 - current_commit_sha=$(git rev-parse HEAD)
 ### build reference binaries
@@ -167,6 +186,13 @@ stages:
   - echo "Applying level scaling in scripts/testv using scale=$LEVEL_SCALING"
   - tests/scale_pcm.py ./scripts/testv/ $LEVEL_SCALING
 
+.merge-request-comparison-check: &merge-request-comparison-check
+  - echo "--------------- Running merge-request-comparison-check anchor ---------------"
+  - 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
+
 .update-ltv-repo: &update-ltv-repo
   - cd $LTV_DIR
   - git pull
@@ -180,6 +206,45 @@ stages:
 .activate-Werror-linux: &activate-Werror-linux
   - sed -i.bak "s/^# \(CFLAGS += -Werror\)/\1/" Makefile
 
+
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------
+# Job templates
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------
+
+# When designing templates, try not to use too much inheritance and
+# if multiple templates and extended on, remember that on conflict,
+# latest overwrites the parameter.
+
+# templates for rules
+.rules-basis:
+  rules:
+    - if: $MIRROR_ACCESS_TOKEN # Don't run in the mirror update pipeline (only then MIRROR_ACCESS_TOKEN is defined)
+      when: never
+    - if: $CI_PIPELINE_SOURCE == 'schedule' # Don't run in any scheduled pipelines by default (use schedule templates below to enable again for certain conditions)
+      when: never
+    - if: $CI_PIPELINE_SOURCE == 'trigger' # Don't run triggered pipeline by default
+      when: never
+    - if: $MANUAL_PIPELINE_TYPE == 'test-be-release' # Skip all the normal jobs when testing manually against release codec
+      when: never
+    - if: $MANUAL_PIPELINE_TYPE == 'test-long-self-test' # Skip all the normal jobs when testing manually against release codec
+      when: never
+    - if: $MANUAL_PIPELINE_TYPE == 'ivas-conformance'
+      when: never
+    - if: $MANUAL_PIPELINE_TYPE == 'ivas-conformance-linux'
+      when: never
+    - if: $MANUAL_PIPELINE_TYPE == 'check-clipping'
+      when: never
+    - if: $MANUAL_PIPELINE_TYPE == 'test-branch-vs-input-passthrough'
+      when: never
+    - when: on_success
+
+.rules-merge-request:
+  extends: .rules-basis
+  rules:
+    - if: $CI_PIPELINE_SOURCE == 'merge_request_event'
+    - if: $CI_PIPELINE_SOURCE == 'push'
+      when: never
+
 .rules-pytest-to-ref-short:
   rules:
     - if: $CI_PIPELINE_SOURCE == 'web' && $MANUAL_PIPELINE_TYPE == "pytest-compare"
@@ -683,6 +748,94 @@ build-codec-linux-instrumented-make:
     - bash scripts/prepare_instrumentation.sh -m MEM_ONLY -p BASOP
     - make -j -C $INSTR_DIR
 
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------
+# Test jobs for merge requests
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------
+
+lc3-wrapper-unit-test:
+  extends:
+    - .test-job-linux
+    - .rules-merge-request
+  needs: ["build-codec-linux-make"]
+  stage: test
+  script:
+    - make -j
+    - scripts/split_rendering/lc3plus/ivas_lc3plus_unit_test
+
+# compare split-rendering bitexactness between target and source branch
+split-rendering-pytest-on-merge-request:
+  extends:
+    - .test-job-linux-needs-testv-dir
+    - .rules-merge-request
+  needs: ["build-codec-linux-make"]
+  # TODO: set reasonable timeout, will most likely take less
+  timeout: "30 minutes"
+  stage: compare
+  script:
+    - *print-common-info
+    - *get-commits-behind-count
+    - *check-commits-behind-count-in-compare-jobs
+
+    # some helper variables - "|| true" to prevent failures from grep not finding anything
+    # write to temporary file as workaround for failures observed with piping echo
+    - echo $CI_MERGE_REQUEST_TITLE > tmp.txt
+    - non_be_flag=$(grep -c --ignore-case "\[split*[ -]*non[ -]*be\]" tmp.txt) || true
+    # TODO: ref_using_target comes from float repo, but does not apply here - disable for now
+    # - ref_using_target=$(grep -c --ignore-case "\[ref[ -]*using[ -]*target\]" tmp.txt) || true
+    - ref_using_target=0
+
+    # store the current commit hash
+    - source_branch_commit_sha=$(git rev-parse HEAD)
+
+    - *mr-fetch-target-branch
+    - *mr-get-target-commit
+    - git checkout $target_commit
+    - echo "Building reference codec at commit $target_commit"
+
+    # build reference binaries
+    - make -j
+    - mv IVAS_cod IVAS_cod_ref
+    - mv IVAS_dec IVAS_dec_ref
+    - mv IVAS_rend IVAS_rend_ref
+
+    ### If ref_using_target is not set, checkout the source branch to use scripts and input from there
+    - if [ $ref_using_target == 0 ]; then git restore lib_com/options.h; fi # Revert changes back before checking out another branch to avoid conflicts
+    - if [ $ref_using_target == 0 ]; then git checkout $source_branch_commit_sha; fi
+    - exit_code=0
+    - testcase_timeout=60
+    - python3 -m pytest -q --log-level ERROR -n auto -rA --html=report.html --self-contained-html --junit-xml=report-junit.xml tests/split_rendering/test_split_rendering.py --create_ref --testcase_timeout=$testcase_timeout || exit_code=$?
+
+    # back to source branch
+    - git restore lib_com/options.h # Revert changes back before checking out another branch to avoid conflicts
+    - git checkout $source_branch_commit_sha
+    - make clean
+    - make -j
+
+    ### Run test using scripts and input from main
+    - if [ $ref_using_target == 1 ]; then git restore lib_com/options.h; fi # Revert changes back before checking out another branch to avoid conflicts
+    - if [ $ref_using_target == 1 ]; then git checkout $source_branch_commit_sha; fi
+
+    # run test
+    - python3 -m pytest -q --log-level ERROR -n auto -rA --html=report.html --self-contained-html --junit-xml=report-junit.xml tests/split_rendering/test_split_rendering.py --create_cut --testcase_timeout=$testcase_timeout || exit_code=$?
+    - zero_errors=$(cat report-junit.xml | grep -c 'errors="0"') || true
+
+    - *merge-request-comparison-check
+
+  allow_failure:
+    exit_codes:
+      - 123
+  artifacts:
+    name: "mr-$CI_MERGE_REQUEST_IID--sha-$CI_COMMIT_SHORT_SHA--job-$CI_JOB_NAME--results"
+    expire_in: 2 week
+    when: always
+    paths:
+      - report-junit.xml
+      - report.html
+    expose_as: "pytest split rendering results"
+    reports:
+      junit:
+        - report-junit.xml
+
 # ---------------------------------------------------------------
 # Short test jobs that run in merge request pipelines
 # ---------------------------------------------------------------