diff --git a/jest.config.js b/jest.config.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..65bbf39
--- /dev/null
+++ b/jest.config.js
@@ -0,0 +1,55 @@
+// test dependencies that require transformation
+let pluginsToTransform = [
+  'tdp_*',
+  'phovea_*',
+  'lineupjs'
+].join('|');
+
+if(pluginsToTransform.length > 0) {
+ /**  Attention: Negative Lookahead! This regex adds the specified repos to a whitelist that holds plugins that are excluded from the transformIgnorePatterns.
+  * This means that pluginsToTransform should contain all repos that export ts files. They can only be handled by the transformation. */
+    pluginsToTransform = `(?!${pluginsToTransform})`;
+}
+
+/**
+ * TODO check if we can process inline webpack loaders (e.g. as found in https://github.com/phovea/phovea_ui/blob/master/src/_bootstrap.ts)
+ * see also https://jestjs.io/docs/en/webpack#mocking-css-modules
+ */
+module.exports = {
+  transform: {
+    "^.+\\.tsx?$": "ts-jest",
+    "\\.xml$": "jest-raw-loader"
+  },
+  testRegex: "(.*(test|spec))\\.(tsx?)$",
+  moduleFileExtensions: [
+    "ts",
+    "tsx",
+    "js",
+    "jsx",
+    "json",
+    "node"
+  ],
+  modulePaths: [
+    "src",
+    "../node_modules",
+    "../"
+  ],
+  transformIgnorePatterns: [`../node_modules/${pluginsToTransform}`, `node_modules/${pluginsToTransform}`],
+  globals: {
+    "__VERSION__": "TEST_VERSION",
+    "__APP_CONTEXT__": "TEST_CONTEXT",
+    'ts-jest': {
+      // has to be set to true, otherwise i18n import fails
+      "tsConfig": {
+        "esModuleInterop": true,
+      }
+    }
+  },
+  moduleNameMapper: {
+    "^.+\\.(css|less|scss|sass|png|jpg|gif)$": "identity-obj-proxy",
+    "imports-loader?.*": "imports-loader",
+    "raw-loader?.*": "raw-loader",
+    "file-loader?.*": "file-loader",
+    "script-loader?.*": "script-loader"
+  }
+}
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index b70a03e..16301c3 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -71,6 +71,7 @@
     "@types/d3-brush": "^1.0.8",
     "@types/d3-drag": "^1.2.1",
     "@types/d3-format": "^1.3.0",
+    "@types/jest": "25.1.4",
     "@types/d3-polygon": "^1.0.6",
     "cache-loader": "^1.2.2",
     "css-loader": "^1.0.0",
@@ -89,7 +90,10 @@
     "extract-text-webpack-plugin": "^4.0.0-beta.0",
     "file-loader": "^1.1.11",
     "fork-ts-checker-webpack-plugin": "^0.4.4",
+    "jest": "25.1.0",
+    "jest-raw-loader": "1.0.1",
     "json-loader": "^0.5.7",
+    "identity-obj-proxy": "^3.0.0",
     "mkdirp": "^0.5.1",
     "node-sass": "^4.12.0",
     "raw-loader": "^1.0.0-beta.0",
@@ -104,6 +108,7 @@
     "tslint": "^5.11.0",
     "tslint-consistent-codestyle": "^1.13.3",
     "tslint-eslint-rules": "^5.3.1",
+    "ts-jest": "25.2.1",
     "typedoc": "^0.11.1",
     "typedoc-plugin-as-member-of": "^1.0.2",
     "typescript": "^3.0.1",