diff --git a/com.oracle.truffle.r.native.recommended/.project b/com.oracle.truffle.r.native.recommended/.project
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..3242ad0404f293a64e20f285c8d9cc66ecbd1877
--- /dev/null
+++ b/com.oracle.truffle.r.native.recommended/.project
@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<projectDescription>
+	<name>com.oracle.truffle.r.native.recommended</name>
+	<comment></comment>
+	<projects>
+	</projects>
+	<buildSpec>
+		<buildCommand>
+			<name>org.eclipse.cdt.managedbuilder.core.genmakebuilder</name>
+			<arguments>
+			</arguments>
+		</buildCommand>
+		<buildCommand>
+			<name>org.eclipse.cdt.managedbuilder.core.ScannerConfigBuilder</name>
+			<triggers>full,incremental,</triggers>
+			<arguments>
+			</arguments>
+		</buildCommand>
+	</buildSpec>
+	<natures>
+		<nature>org.eclipse.cdt.core.cnature</nature>
+		<nature>org.eclipse.cdt.managedbuilder.core.managedBuildNature</nature>
+		<nature>org.eclipse.cdt.managedbuilder.core.ScannerConfigNature</nature>
+	</natures>
+</projectDescription>
diff --git a/com.oracle.truffle.r.native.recommended/Makefile b/com.oracle.truffle.r.native.recommended/Makefile
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..0b26a47e96d57e4be0a80cc85d7b15b16ecc8efd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/com.oracle.truffle.r.native.recommended/Makefile
@@ -0,0 +1,58 @@
+#
+# Copyright (c) 2016, 2016, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
+# DO NOT ALTER OR REMOVE COPYRIGHT NOTICES OR THIS FILE HEADER.
+#
+# This code is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
+# under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 only, as
+# published by the Free Software Foundation.
+#
+# This code 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 GNU General Public License
+# version 2 for more details (a copy is included in the LICENSE file that
+# accompanied this code).
+#
+# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License version
+# 2 along with this work; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation,
+# Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA.
+#
+# Please contact Oracle, 500 Oracle Parkway, Redwood Shores, CA 94065 USA
+# or visit www.oracle.com if you need additional information or have any
+# questions.
+#
+
+# This builds the "recommended" packages that are bundled with GNU R
+# It has to be built separately from the "native" project that contains
+# the packages because that is built first and before FastR is completely built
+# N.B. As this takes quite a while the building is conditional on the
+# FASTR_RELEASE environment variable
+
+.PHONY: all clean
+
+FASTR_R_HOME := $(abspath $(CURDIR)/..)
+NATIVE_PROJECT := $(subst native.recommended,native,$(CURDIR))
+R_VERSION := $(notdir $(wildcard $(NATIVE_PROJECT)/gnur/R-*))
+GNUR_HOME := $(NATIVE_PROJECT)/gnur/$(R_VERSION)
+GNUR_RECOMMENDED_TARS := $(wildcard $(GNUR_HOME)/src/library/Recommended/*.tgz)
+#$(info GNUR_RECOMMENDED_TARS=$(GNUR_RECOMMENDED_TARS))
+GNUR_RECOMMENDED_PKGNAMES := $(foreach tar,$(GNUR_RECOMMENDED_TARS),$(notdir $(basename $(tar))))
+#$(info GNUR_RECOMMENDED_PKGNAMES=$(GNUR_RECOMMENDED_PKGNAMES))
+
+all: install.recommended
+
+ifdef FASTR_RELEASE
+install.recommended: $(GNUR_RECOMMENDED_TARS)
+	for pkgtar in $(GNUR_RECOMMENDED_TARS); do \
+		$(FASTR_R_HOME)/bin/R CMD INSTALL --library=$(FASTR_R_HOME)/library $$pkgtar; \
+	done
+	touch install.recommended
+else
+install.recommended:
+endif
+
+clean:
+	for pkgname in $(GNUR_RECOMMENDED_PKGNAMES); do \
+		rm -rf $(FASTR_R_HOME)/library/$$pkgname; \
+	done
+	rm -f install.recommended
+
diff --git a/com.oracle.truffle.r.native/Makefile b/com.oracle.truffle.r.native/Makefile
index b56d8c118269f478873d72697f8fe47345bc71d6..2b59c073ff66292a1acdc7318c2385a98a9da7c5 100644
--- a/com.oracle.truffle.r.native/Makefile
+++ b/com.oracle.truffle.r.native/Makefile
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ export TOPDIR = $(CURDIR)
 export FASTR_R_HOME=$(abspath $(TOPDIR)/..)
 export FASTR_LIB_DIR=$(FASTR_R_HOME)/lib
 export FASTR_NATIVE_DIR = $(TOPDIR)
-export R_VERSION = 3.2.4
+export R_VERSION = $(subst R-,,$(notdir $(basename $(basename $(wildcard $(FASTR_R_HOME)/libdownloads/R-*.gz)))))
 export GNUR_HOME = $(TOPDIR)/gnur/R-$(R_VERSION)
 
 all: 
diff --git a/com.oracle.truffle.r.native/gnur/Makefile.gnur b/com.oracle.truffle.r.native/gnur/Makefile.gnur
index 238eb6c3e5a21fa21ec597b8d78257f57b055d68..852f97671b15659d6c22a5b07097048f9da89ca1 100644
--- a/com.oracle.truffle.r.native/gnur/Makefile.gnur
+++ b/com.oracle.truffle.r.native/gnur/Makefile.gnur
@@ -114,9 +114,13 @@ config_update:
 endif
 # end FORCE_PIC
 
+ifndef FASTR_RELEASE
+RECPKGS := "--without-recommended-packages"
+endif
+
 $(GNUR_HOME)/Makefile:
 	ed $(GNUR_HOME)/src/extra/xz/Makefile.in < patchXzMakefile
-	(cd $(GNUR_HOME); ./configure --with-x=no --without-recommended-packages --enable-memory-profiling $(GNUR_CONFIG_FLAGS) > gnur_configure.log 2>&1)
+	(cd $(GNUR_HOME); ./configure --with-x=no $(RECPKGS) --enable-memory-profiling $(GNUR_CONFIG_FLAGS) > gnur_configure.log 2>&1)
 
 build: $(GNUR_HOME)/bin/R
 
diff --git a/com.oracle.truffle.r.test.cran/recommended b/com.oracle.truffle.r.test.cran/recommended
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..f4a1fb221cc715bea3cf8a7b4baf7bb0a41ba1ca
--- /dev/null
+++ b/com.oracle.truffle.r.test.cran/recommended
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+KernSmooth
+MASS
+Matrix
+boot
+class
+cluster
+codetools
+foreign
+lattice
+mgcv
+nlme
+nnet
+rpart
+spatial
+survival
diff --git a/mx.fastr/suite.py b/mx.fastr/suite.py
index b521619330827dd75ff847ae6305e99ec8fb8dee..79f51f71e0e0e33f7d7b78a9d346c697e1f0be53 100644
--- a/mx.fastr/suite.py
+++ b/mx.fastr/suite.py
@@ -265,6 +265,19 @@ suite = {
       "class" : "FastRReleaseProject",
       "output" : "com.oracle.truffle.r.release"
     },
+
+    "com.oracle.truffle.r.native.recommended" : {
+      "sourceDirs" : [],
+      "dependencies" : [
+        "com.oracle.truffle.r.native",
+        "com.oracle.truffle.r.engine",
+        "com.oracle.truffle.r.runtime.ffi"
+      ],
+      "native" : "true",
+      "output" : "com.oracle.truffle.r.native.recommended",
+      "workingSets" : "FastR",
+    },
+
   },
 
   "distributions" : {