diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/r-irkernel/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/r-irkernel/package.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..34b5c3c363f01770ca26d75b3eb26157f1ad1c42
--- /dev/null
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/r-irkernel/package.py
@@ -0,0 +1,51 @@
+##############################################################################
+# Copyright (c) 2013-2016, Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC.
+# Produced at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
+#
+# This file is part of Spack.
+# Created by Todd Gamblin, tgamblin@llnl.gov, All rights reserved.
+# LLNL-CODE-647188
+#
+# For details, see https://github.com/llnl/spack
+# Please also see the LICENSE file for our notice and the LGPL.
+#
+# This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
+# it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License (as
+# published by the Free Software Foundation) version 2.1, February 1999.
+#
+# This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
+# WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the IMPLIED WARRANTY OF
+# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the terms and
+# conditions of the GNU Lesser General Public License for more details.
+#
+# You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public
+# License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
+# Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA
+##############################################################################
+
+from spack import *
+
+
+class RIrkernel(Package):
+    """R kernel for Jupyter"""
+
+    homepage = "https://irkernel.github.io/"
+
+    # Git repository
+    version('master', git='https://github.com/IRkernel/IRkernel.git',
+        tag='0.7')
+
+    extends('R')
+
+    depends_on('r-repr', type=nolink)
+    depends_on('r-irdisplay', type=nolink)
+    depends_on('r-evaluate', type=nolink)
+    depends_on('r-crayon', type=nolink)
+    depends_on('r-pbdzmq', type=nolink)
+    depends_on('r-devtools', type=nolink)
+    depends_on('r-uuid', type=nolink)
+    depends_on('r-digest', type=nolink)
+
+    def install(self, spec, prefix):
+        R('CMD', 'INSTALL', '--library={0}'.format(self.module.r_lib_dir),
+          self.stage.source_path)
diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/r-pbdzmq/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/r-pbdzmq/package.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..b5a9546124352dda398f271666b5cd59bcab06cb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/r-pbdzmq/package.py
@@ -0,0 +1,51 @@
+##############################################################################
+# Copyright (c) 2013-2016, Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC.
+# Produced at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
+#
+# This file is part of Spack.
+# Created by Todd Gamblin, tgamblin@llnl.gov, All rights reserved.
+# LLNL-CODE-647188
+#
+# For details, see https://github.com/llnl/spack
+# Please also see the LICENSE file for our notice and the LGPL.
+#
+# This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
+# it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License (as
+# published by the Free Software Foundation) version 2.1, February 1999.
+#
+# This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
+# WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the IMPLIED WARRANTY OF
+# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the terms and
+# conditions of the GNU Lesser General Public License for more details.
+#
+# You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public
+# License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
+# Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA
+##############################################################################
+
+from spack import *
+
+
+class RPbdzmq(Package):
+    """'ZeroMQ' is a well-known library for high-performance asynchronous
+    messaging in scalable, distributed applications. This package provides
+    high level R wrapper functions to easily utilize 'ZeroMQ'. We mainly focus
+    on interactive client/server programming frameworks. For convenience, a
+    minimal 'ZeroMQ' library (4.1.0 rc1) is shipped with 'pbdZMQ', which can
+    be used if no system installation of 'ZeroMQ' is available. A few wrapper
+    functions compatible with 'rzmq' are also provided."""
+
+    homepage = "http://r-pbd.org/"
+    url      = "https://cran.r-project.org/src/contrib/pbdZMQ_0.2-4.tar.gz"
+    list_url = "https://cran.r-project.org/src/contrib/Archive/pbdZMQ"
+
+    version('0.2-4', 'e5afb70199aa54d737ee7a0e26bde060')
+
+    extends('R')
+
+    depends_on('r-R6', type=nolink)
+    depends_on('zeromq')
+
+    def install(self, spec, prefix):
+        R('CMD', 'INSTALL', '--library={0}'.format(self.module.r_lib_dir),
+          self.stage.source_path)