diff --git a/MANIFEST.in b/MANIFEST.in
index 76c0f1d8d29fd34b4910c4f3a763793724a15c5b..79d2cebcc144a9f4bcbed54d2493e85688c28f3a 100644
--- a/MANIFEST.in
+++ b/MANIFEST.in
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
-include README.rst bootstrap-buildout.py buildout.cfg
+include README.rst bootstrap-buildout.py buildout.cfg version.txt
 recursive-include doc *.rst
 recursive-include gridtk *.sh
diff --git a/gridtk/tests/__init__.py b/gridtk/tests/__init__.py
index 5a734a1a51a11e9cab02e62671ad6699bc11e6bf..aa6149e145455b946be086e3ca91549ebd340444 100644
--- a/gridtk/tests/__init__.py
+++ b/gridtk/tests/__init__.py
@@ -2,7 +2,6 @@
 from __future__ import print_function
 
 import unittest
-import nose
 
 import os
 import pkg_resources
@@ -43,6 +42,8 @@ class GridTKTest(unittest.TestCase):
 
     try:
 
+      import nose
+
       # first, add some commands to the database
       script_1 = pkg_resources.resource_filename('gridtk.tests', 'test_script.sh')
       script_2 = pkg_resources.resource_filename('gridtk.tests', 'test_array.sh')
@@ -234,5 +235,5 @@ class GridTKTest(unittest.TestCase):
 
   def notest02_grid(self):
     # Tests the functionality of the grid toolkit in the grid
+    import nose
     raise nose.plugins.skip.SkipTest("This test is not yet implemented. If you find a proper ways to test the grid functionality, please go ahead and implement the test.")
-
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 98d3aefd1270689bd4c22771e498fabe97a5df45..ee41a3f044f2971a59388297bf54520f8002244f 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -7,9 +7,11 @@ DEPS = ['six']
 if sys.version_info[:2] < (2, 7) or ((3,0) <= sys.version_info[:2] < (3,2)):
   DEPS.append('argparse')
 
+version = open("version.txt").read().rstrip()
+
 setup(
     name='gridtk',
-    version='1.1.8a0',
+    version=version,
     description='SGE Grid and Local Submission and Monitoring Tools for Idiap',
 
     url='http://github.com/idiap/gridtk',
diff --git a/version.txt b/version.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..95f875aa7438976ebb09838faa5c9e5de0c3ea2a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/version.txt
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+1.1.8a0