diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index 5ec3f39d070aa0f12b285a8368186f8d39d74369..d5128ca27824dd4b41cb7e120c872ad943499a5e 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -134,12 +134,14 @@ doctest:
 # Building stage
 # ===========================================================
 # check if we are able to build a wheel
+# and if the import works
 wheel:
   stage: build
   script:
     - pip install wheel
     - pip wheel .
     - pip install .
+    - python -c 'import saqc; print(f"{saqc.__version__=}")'
 
 docs:
   stage: build
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index f1b595bab94a4ae634348a4c9fe67b806ddfbdd8..1d92394d04e22cb9e44bd12aa05f20d5a8554741 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -39,7 +39,7 @@ setup(
         "numpy",
         "outlier-utils",
         "pyarrow",
-        "pandas",
+        "pandas>=2.0.0",
         "scikit-learn",
         "scipy",
         "typing_extensions",