diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index a56c79d26301ea6fc1afd87145333ffba52a8b8b..9a5bca1128b196bdd74b88bf3b8876582b5ef6d8 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -39,7 +39,6 @@ stages:
   - status-pending
   - config
   - initialize
-  - data_init
   - simulate
   - calibrate
   - benchmarks
@@ -93,18 +92,9 @@ common:setup:
     - mkdir -p config
     - print_env.sh
 
-get_data:
-  stage: data_init
-  needs: ["common:setup"]
-  script:
-    - source .local/bin/env.sh
-    - ln -s "${LOCAL_DATA_PATH}/sim_output" sim_output
-    - ln -s "${LOCAL_DATA_PATH}/datasets/data" data
-    - cd ${LOCAL_DATA_PATH} && git clone --depth=1 https://eicweb.phy.anl.gov/EIC/datasets.git datasets
-
 .det_benchmark:
   needs:
-    - ["get_data","common:setup"]
+    - ["common:setup"]
   before_script:
     - mc config host add S3 https://eics3.sdcc.bnl.gov:9000 ${S3_ACCESS_KEY} ${S3_SECRET_KEY}
     - source .local/bin/env.sh