diff --git a/.github/workflows/tests_archdetect_nvidia_gpu.yml b/.github/workflows/tests_archdetect_nvidia_gpu.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..8ad5f4fb36
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/workflows/tests_archdetect_nvidia_gpu.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,124 @@
+# documentation: https://help.github.com/en/articles/workflow-syntax-for-github-actions
+name: Tests for accelerator detection (NVIDIA GPU)
+on:
+  push:
+  pull_request:
+permissions:
+  contents: read # to fetch code (actions/checkout)
+jobs:
+  build:
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    strategy:
+      matrix:
+        fake_nvidia_smi_script:
+          - none # no nvidia-smi command
+          - no_devices # nvidia-smi command works, but no GPUs available
+          - 1xa100 # cc80, supported with (atleast) zen2 CPU
+          - 2xa100 # cc80, supported with (atleast) zen2 CPU
+          - 4xa100 # cc80, supported with (atleast) zen2 CPU
+          - cc01 # non-existing GPU
+      fail-fast: false
+    steps:
+    - name: checkout
+      uses: actions/checkout@d632683dd7b4114ad314bca15554477dd762a938 # v4.2.0
+
+    # we deliberately do not use the eessi/github-action-eessi action,
+    # because we want to control when the EESSI environment is initialized
+    - name: Mount EESSI CernVM-FS repository
+      uses: cvmfs-contrib/github-action-cvmfs@55899ca74cf78ab874bdf47f5a804e47c198743c # v4.0
+      with:
+          cvmfs_config_package: https://github.com/EESSI/filesystem-layer/releases/download/latest/cvmfs-config-eessi_latest_all.deb
+          cvmfs_http_proxy: DIRECT
+          cvmfs_repositories: software.eessi.io
+
+    - name: test accelerator detection
+      run: |
+          export EESSI_SOFTWARE_SUBDIR_OVERRIDE='x86_64/amd/zen2'
+
+          # put fake nvidia-smi command in place (unless we don't want to)
+          if [[ "${{matrix.fake_nvidia_smi_script}}" != "none" ]]; then
+              tmpdir=$(mktemp -d)
+              ln -s $PWD/tests/archdetect/nvidia-smi/${{matrix.fake_nvidia_smi_script}}.sh $tmpdir/nvidia-smi
+              export PATH=$tmpdir:$PATH
+          fi
+
+          # first run with debugging enabled, just to show the output
+          ./init/eessi_archdetect.sh -d accelpath || echo "non-zero exit code: $?"
+
+          # verify output (or exit code if non-zero)
+          out=$(./init/eessi_archdetect.sh accelpath || echo "non-zero exit code: $?")
+
+          if [[ $out == "$( cat ./tests/archdetect/nvidia-smi/${{matrix.fake_nvidia_smi_script}}.output )" ]]; then
+
+              echo "Test for '${{matrix.fake_nvidia_smi_script}}' PASSED: '$out'"
+
+              # run full EESSI init script, which pick up on the accelerator (if available)
+              echo
+              . init/bash 2>&1 | tee init.out
+              echo "-----------------------------------------------------------------------------"
+
+              if [[ "${{matrix.fake_nvidia_smi_script}}" == "none" ]] || [[ "${{matrix.fake_nvidia_smi_script}}" == "no_devices" ]]; then
+
+                  pattern="archdetect could not detect any accelerators"
+                  echo ">>> checking for pattern '${pattern}' in init output..."
+                  grep "${pattern}" init.out || (echo "FAILED 1" || exit 1)
+
+                  pattern="archdetect found supported accelerator"
+                  echo ">>> checking for lack of pattern '${pattern}' in init output..."
+                  match=$(grep "${pattern}" init.out || true)
+                  test "x${match}" = "x" || (echo "unexpected match found for '${pattern}' in init output" && exit 1)
+
+                  pattern="Prepending /cvmfs/software.eessi.io/versions/2023.06/software/linux/.*/accel/.*/modules/all to \$MODULEPATH"
+                  echo ">>> checking for lack of pattern '${pattern}' in init output..."
+                  match=$(grep "${pattern}" init.out || true)
+                  test "x${match}" = "x" || (echo "unexpected match found for '${pattern}' in init output" && exit 1)
+
+              elif [[ "${{matrix.fake_nvidia_smi_script}}" == "cc01" ]]; then
+
+                  pattern="No matching path found in x86_64/amd/zen2 for accelerator detected by archdetect (accel/nvidia/cc01)"
+                  echo ">>> checking for pattern '${pattern}' in init output..."
+                  grep "${pattern}" init.out || (echo "FAILED 1" || exit 1)
+
+                  pattern="Prepending /cvmfs/software.eessi.io/versions/2023.06/software/linux/.*/accel/.*/modules/all to \$MODULEPATH"
+                  echo ">>> checking for lack of pattern '${pattern}' in init output..."
+                  match=$(grep "${pattern}" init.out || true)
+                  test "x${match}" = "x" || (echo "unexpected match found for '${pattern}' in init output" && exit 1)
+
+              else
+                  echo ">>> checking for 'accel/nvidia/cc80' in init output..."
+                  grep "archdetect found supported accelerator for CPU target x86_64/amd/zen2: accel/nvidia/cc80" init.out || (echo "FAILED 2" && exit 1)
+                  grep "Prepending /cvmfs/software.eessi.io/versions/2023.06/software/linux/x86_64/amd/zen2/accel/nvidia/cc80/modules/all to \$MODULEPATH" init.out || (echo "FAILED 3" && exit 1)
+              fi
+
+              echo ">>> checking last line of init output..."
+              tail -1 init.out | grep "Environment set up to use EESSI (2023.06), have fun!" || (echo "FAILED, full init utput:" && cat init.out && exit 1)
+
+              echo "All checks on init output PASSED"
+          else
+              echo "Test for '${{matrix.fake_nvidia_smi_script}}' FAILED: '$out'" >&2
+              exit 1
+          fi
+
+    - name: test accelerator detection under $EESSI_ACCEL_SOFTWARE_SUBDIR_OVERRIDE + $EESSI_ACCELERATOR_TARGET_OVERRIDE
+      run: |
+          export EESSI_SOFTWARE_SUBDIR_OVERRIDE='x86_64/amd/zen2'
+          export EESSI_ACCEL_SOFTWARE_SUBDIR_OVERRIDE='x86_64/amd/zen3'
+          export EESSI_ACCELERATOR_TARGET_OVERRIDE='accel/nvidia/cc80'
+
+          # first run with debugging enabled, just to show the output
+          ./init/eessi_archdetect.sh -d accelpath || echo "non-zero exit code: $?"
+
+          # verify output (or exit code if non-zero)
+          out=$(./init/eessi_archdetect.sh accelpath || echo "non-zero exit code: $?")
+
+          echo
+          . init/bash 2>&1 | tee init.out
+          echo "-----------------------------------------------------------------------------"
+
+          echo ">>> checking for 'accel/nvidia/cc80' in init output..."
+          grep "archdetect found supported accelerator for CPU target x86_64/amd/zen3: accel/nvidia/cc80" init.out || (echo "FAILED 1" && exit 1)
+          grep "Using x86_64/amd/zen2 as software subdirectory" init.out || (echo "FAILED 2" && exit 1)
+          grep "Prepending /cvmfs/software.eessi.io/versions/2023.06/software/linux/x86_64/amd/zen2/modules/all to \$MODULEPATH" init.out || (echo "FAILED 3" && exit 1)
+          grep "Prepending /cvmfs/software.eessi.io/versions/2023.06/software/linux/x86_64/amd/zen3/accel/nvidia/cc80/modules/all to \$MODULEPATH" init.out || (echo "FAILED 4" && exit 1)
+
+          echo "All checks on init output PASSED"
diff --git a/init/bash b/init/bash
index 4ad09f6a1b..928ac6efdf 100644
--- a/init/bash
+++ b/init/bash
@@ -29,6 +29,11 @@ if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
     show_msg "Prepending site path $EESSI_SITE_MODULEPATH to \$MODULEPATH..."
     module use $EESSI_SITE_MODULEPATH
 
+    if [ ! -z ${EESSI_MODULEPATH_ACCEL} ]; then
+        show_msg "Prepending $EESSI_MODULEPATH_ACCEL to \$MODULEPATH..."
+        module use $EESSI_MODULEPATH_ACCEL
+    fi
+
     #show_msg ""
     #show_msg "*** Known problems in the ${EESSI_VERSION} software stack ***"
     #show_msg ""
diff --git a/init/eessi_archdetect.sh b/init/eessi_archdetect.sh
index ad6dce6f9a..2b1534ce62 100755
--- a/init/eessi_archdetect.sh
+++ b/init/eessi_archdetect.sh
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ else
     exit 1
 fi
 
-VERSION="1.1.0"
+VERSION="1.2.0"
 
 # default log level: only emit warnings or errors
 LOG_LEVEL="WARN"
@@ -150,8 +150,45 @@ cpupath(){
     fi
 }
 
+accelpath() {
+    # If EESSI_ACCELERATOR_TARGET_OVERRIDE is set, use it
+    log "DEBUG" "accelpath: Override variable set as '$EESSI_ACCELERATOR_TARGET_OVERRIDE' "
+    if [ ! -z $EESSI_ACCELERATOR_TARGET_OVERRIDE ]; then
+        if [[ "$EESSI_ACCELERATOR_TARGET_OVERRIDE" =~ ^accel/nvidia/cc[0-9][0-9]$ ]]; then
+            echo ${EESSI_ACCELERATOR_TARGET_OVERRIDE}
+            return 0
+        else
+            log "ERROR" "Value of \$EESSI_ACCELERATOR_TARGET_OVERRIDE should match 'accel/nvidia/cc[0-9[0-9]', but it does not: '$EESSI_ACCELERATOR_TARGET_OVERRIDE'"
+        fi
+        return 0
+    fi
+
+    # check for NVIDIA GPUs via nvidia-smi command
+    nvidia_smi=$(command -v nvidia-smi)
+    if [[ $? -eq 0 ]]; then
+        log "DEBUG" "accelpath: nvidia-smi command found @ ${nvidia_smi}"
+        nvidia_smi_out=$(mktemp -p /tmp nvidia_smi_out.XXXXX)
+        nvidia-smi --query-gpu=gpu_name,count,driver_version,compute_cap --format=csv,noheader 2>&1 > $nvidia_smi_out
+        if [[ $? -eq 0 ]]; then
+            nvidia_smi_info=$(head -1 $nvidia_smi_out)
+            cuda_cc=$(echo $nvidia_smi_info | sed 's/, /,/g' | cut -f4 -d, | sed 's/\.//g')
+            log "DEBUG" "accelpath: CUDA compute capability '${cuda_cc}' derived from nvidia-smi output '${nvidia_smi_info}'"
+            res="accel/nvidia/cc${cuda_cc}"
+            log "DEBUG" "accelpath: result: ${res}"
+            echo $res
+            rm -f $nvidia_smi_out
+        else
+            log "DEBUG" "accelpath: nvidia-smi command failed, see output in $nvidia_smi_out"
+            exit 3
+        fi
+    else
+        log "DEBUG" "accelpath: nvidia-smi command not found"
+        exit 2
+    fi
+}
+
 # Parse command line arguments
-USAGE="Usage: eessi_archdetect.sh [-h][-d][-a] <action>"
+USAGE="Usage: eessi_archdetect.sh [-h][-d][-a] <action: cpupath or accelpath>"
 
 while getopts 'hdva' OPTION; do
     case "$OPTION" in
@@ -168,5 +205,6 @@ ARGUMENT=${1:-none}
 
 case "$ARGUMENT" in
     "cpupath") cpupath; exit;;
-    *) echo "$USAGE"; log "ERROR" "Missing <action> argument (possible actions: 'cpupath')";;
+    "accelpath") accelpath; exit;;
+    *) echo "$USAGE"; log "ERROR" "Missing <action> argument (possible actions: 'cpupath', 'accelpath')";;
 esac
diff --git a/init/eessi_environment_variables b/init/eessi_environment_variables
index 8c10b1fca8..ab4894fb16 100644
--- a/init/eessi_environment_variables
+++ b/init/eessi_environment_variables
@@ -38,6 +38,45 @@ if [ -d $EESSI_PREFIX ]; then
           break
         fi
       done
+
+      # we need to make sure that errexit shell option (set -e) is not enabled,
+      # since archdetect will produce non-zero exit code if no accelerator was found
+      if [[ "$-" =~ e ]]; then
+        errexit_shell_option_set='yes'
+        set +e
+      else
+        errexit_shell_option_set='no'
+      fi
+
+      # to be able to grab exit code of archdetect trying to detect accelerators,
+      # we can not run it via $(...), so we have to redirect the output to a temporary file
+      tmpout=$(mktemp)
+      ${EESSI_INIT_DIR_PATH}/eessi_archdetect.sh accelpath 2>&1 > $tmpout
+      accelpath_exit_code=$?
+
+      if [[ "$errexit_shell_option_set" == "yes" ]]; then
+        set -e
+      fi
+
+      if [[ $accelpath_exit_code -eq 0 ]]; then
+          export EESSI_ACCEL_SUBDIR=$(tail -1 $tmpout && rm -f $tmpout)
+          if [ -z ${EESSI_ACCEL_SUBDIR} ]; then
+              error "accelerator detection with archdetect worked, but no result was returned?!"
+          else
+              # allow specifying different parent directory for accel/* subdirectory via $EESSI_ACCEL_SOFTWARE_SUBDIR_OVERRIDE
+              EESSI_ACCEL_SOFTWARE_SUBDIR=${EESSI_ACCEL_SOFTWARE_SUBDIR_OVERRIDE:-$EESSI_SOFTWARE_SUBDIR}
+              # path to where accel/* subdirectory is located
+              EESSI_ACCEL_SOFTWARE_PATH=${EESSI_PREFIX}/software/${EESSI_OS_TYPE}/${EESSI_ACCEL_SOFTWARE_SUBDIR}
+              if [ -d $EESSI_ACCEL_SOFTWARE_PATH/${EESSI_ACCEL_SUBDIR} ]; then
+                  show_msg "archdetect found supported accelerator for CPU target ${EESSI_ACCEL_SOFTWARE_SUBDIR}: ${EESSI_ACCEL_SUBDIR}"
+              else
+                  show_msg "No matching path found in ${EESSI_ACCEL_SOFTWARE_SUBDIR} for accelerator detected by archdetect (${EESSI_ACCEL_SUBDIR})"
+              fi
+          fi
+      else
+          show_msg "archdetect could not detect any accelerators"
+          rm -f $tmpout
+      fi
     elif [ "$EESSI_USE_ARCHSPEC" == "1" ]; then
       # note: eessi_software_subdir_for_host.py will pick up value from $EESSI_SOFTWARE_SUBDIR_OVERRIDE if it's defined!
       export EESSI_EPREFIX_PYTHON=$EESSI_EPREFIX/usr/bin/python3
@@ -106,6 +145,11 @@ if [ -d $EESSI_PREFIX ]; then
             false
           fi
 
+          if [ -d ${EESSI_ACCEL_SOFTWARE_PATH}/${EESSI_ACCEL_SUBDIR}/${EESSI_MODULE_SUBDIR} ]; then
+              export EESSI_MODULEPATH_ACCEL=${EESSI_ACCEL_SOFTWARE_PATH}/${EESSI_ACCEL_SUBDIR}/${EESSI_MODULE_SUBDIR}
+              show_msg "Using ${EESSI_MODULEPATH_ACCEL} as additional directory (for accelerators) to be added to MODULEPATH."
+          fi
+
           # Fix wrong path for RHEL >=8 libcurl 
 	  # This is required here because we ship curl in our compat layer. If we only provided
 	  # curl as a module file we could instead do this via a `modluafooter` in an EasyBuild
diff --git a/tests/archdetect/nvidia-smi/1xa100.output b/tests/archdetect/nvidia-smi/1xa100.output
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..5eb3aaff18
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/archdetect/nvidia-smi/1xa100.output
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+accel/nvidia/cc80
diff --git a/tests/archdetect/nvidia-smi/1xa100.sh b/tests/archdetect/nvidia-smi/1xa100.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..ead191418b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/archdetect/nvidia-smi/1xa100.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+# output from NVIDIA A100 system,
+# produced by: nvidia-smi --query-gpu=gpu_name,count,driver_version,compute_cap --format=csv,noheader
+echo "NVIDIA A100-SXM4-80GB, 1, 545.23.08, 8.0"
+exit 0
diff --git a/tests/archdetect/nvidia-smi/2xa100.output b/tests/archdetect/nvidia-smi/2xa100.output
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..5eb3aaff18
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/archdetect/nvidia-smi/2xa100.output
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+accel/nvidia/cc80
diff --git a/tests/archdetect/nvidia-smi/2xa100.sh b/tests/archdetect/nvidia-smi/2xa100.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..5539607fbe
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/archdetect/nvidia-smi/2xa100.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+# output from NVIDIA A100 system,
+# produced by: nvidia-smi --query-gpu=gpu_name,count,driver_version,compute_cap --format=csv,noheader
+echo "NVIDIA A100-SXM4-80GB, 2, 545.23.08, 8.0"
+echo "NVIDIA A100-SXM4-80GB, 2, 545.23.08, 8.0"
+exit 0
diff --git a/tests/archdetect/nvidia-smi/4xa100.output b/tests/archdetect/nvidia-smi/4xa100.output
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..5eb3aaff18
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/archdetect/nvidia-smi/4xa100.output
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+accel/nvidia/cc80
diff --git a/tests/archdetect/nvidia-smi/4xa100.sh b/tests/archdetect/nvidia-smi/4xa100.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..45458ea7bd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/archdetect/nvidia-smi/4xa100.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+# output from NVIDIA A100 system,
+# produced by: nvidia-smi --query-gpu=gpu_name,count,driver_version,compute_cap --format=csv,noheader
+echo "NVIDIA A100-SXM4-80GB, 4, 545.23.08, 8.0"
+echo "NVIDIA A100-SXM4-80GB, 4, 545.23.08, 8.0"
+echo "NVIDIA A100-SXM4-80GB, 4, 545.23.08, 8.0"
+echo "NVIDIA A100-SXM4-80GB, 4, 545.23.08, 8.0"
+exit 0
diff --git a/tests/archdetect/nvidia-smi/cc01.output b/tests/archdetect/nvidia-smi/cc01.output
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..9cbf66a131
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/archdetect/nvidia-smi/cc01.output
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+accel/nvidia/cc01
diff --git a/tests/archdetect/nvidia-smi/cc01.sh b/tests/archdetect/nvidia-smi/cc01.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..81011a1d16
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/archdetect/nvidia-smi/cc01.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+# output from non-existing NVIDIA GPU system,
+# to test handling of unknown GPU model
+# (supposedly) produced by: nvidia-smi --query-gpu=gpu_name,count,driver_version,compute_cap --format=csv,noheader
+echo "NVIDIA does-not-exist, 1, 000.00.00, 0.1"
+exit 0
diff --git a/tests/archdetect/nvidia-smi/no_devices.output b/tests/archdetect/nvidia-smi/no_devices.output
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..b251bfc837
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/archdetect/nvidia-smi/no_devices.output
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+non-zero exit code: 3
diff --git a/tests/archdetect/nvidia-smi/no_devices.sh b/tests/archdetect/nvidia-smi/no_devices.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..0bc26dcddc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/archdetect/nvidia-smi/no_devices.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+echo "No devices were found"
+exit 6
diff --git a/tests/archdetect/nvidia-smi/none.output b/tests/archdetect/nvidia-smi/none.output
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..e287574cc3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/archdetect/nvidia-smi/none.output
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+non-zero exit code: 2