diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index b0ee184762aabe538df9c00c76d91f81da0ffd8c..e97caa7617dc4877358f2e6b58f088be1985cbfa 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -160,7 +160,7 @@ test-metadata-service: build-metadata-db build-metadata-service
 test-user-service: build-metadata-db build-user-service
 	mvn -f ./dbrepo-user-service/pom.xml clean test verify
 
-test-semantics-service: clean build-metadata-db build-semantics-service
+test-semantics-service: build-metadata-db build-semantics-service
 	mvn -f ./dbrepo-semantics-service/pom.xml clean test verify
 
 test-analyse-service: build-analyse-service
diff --git a/dbrepo-semantics-service/pom.xml b/dbrepo-semantics-service/pom.xml
index 8276456a2caa204ac8aeb5a9f7cce5cdfd790b71..83e555c4b274d9fd3b19b4ac660779be7fe31645 100644
--- a/dbrepo-semantics-service/pom.xml
+++ b/dbrepo-semantics-service/pom.xml
@@ -25,7 +25,6 @@
         <java.version>17</java.version>
         <spring-cloud.version>4.0.2</spring-cloud.version>
         <mapstruct.version>1.5.5.Final</mapstruct.version>
-        <docker.version>3.3.0</docker.version>
         <swagger.version>2.2.9</swagger.version>
         <jacoco.version>0.8.10</jacoco.version>
         <jwt.version>4.3.0</jwt.version>
@@ -36,6 +35,7 @@
         <c3p0-hibernate.version>6.2.2.Final</c3p0-hibernate.version>
         <apache-jena.version>4.8.0</apache-jena.version>
         <springdoc-openapi.version>2.1.0</springdoc-openapi.version>
+        <hsqldb.version>2.7.2</hsqldb.version>
         <opensearch-client.version>1.1.0</opensearch-client.version>
     </properties>
 
@@ -121,8 +121,9 @@
             </exclusions>
         </dependency>
         <dependency>
-            <groupId>com.h2database</groupId>
-            <artifactId>h2</artifactId>
+            <groupId>org.hsqldb</groupId>
+            <artifactId>hsqldb</artifactId>
+            <version>${hsqldb.version}</version>
             <scope>test</scope>
         </dependency>
         <dependency>
diff --git a/dbrepo-semantics-service/rest-service/src/test/resources/application.properties b/dbrepo-semantics-service/rest-service/src/test/resources/application.properties
index 65007f07659129fba0dbf7f2f6dc6f2c29d2ca7d..302797747d9c1a746cdc6a930fd21b847535210a 100644
--- a/dbrepo-semantics-service/rest-service/src/test/resources/application.properties
+++ b/dbrepo-semantics-service/rest-service/src/test/resources/application.properties
@@ -9,14 +9,14 @@ spring.cloud.config.discovery.enabled=false
 spring.cloud.config.enabled=false
 
 # internal datasource
-# spring 6 fix https://github.com/h2database/h2database/issues/3363
-spring.datasource.url=jdbc:h2:mem:testdb;NON_KEYWORDS=VALUE,KEY;DB_CLOSE_ON_EXIT=FALSE;INIT=CREATE SCHEMA IF NOT EXISTS FDA
-spring.datasource.driverClassName=org.h2.Driver
-spring.datasource.username=sa
-spring.datasource.password=password
-spring.jpa.database-platform=org.hibernate.dialect.H2Dialect
-spring.jpa.hibernate.ddl-auto=create-drop
-spring.jpa.show-sql=false
+spring.datasource.driver-class-name=org.hsqldb.jdbc.JDBCDriver
+spring.datasource.url=jdbc:hsqldb:mem:testdb;db_close_delay=-1;sql.syntax_mys=true
+spring.jpa.database-platform=org.hibernate.dialect.HSQLDialect
+spring.datasource.username=root
+spring.datasource.password=dbrepo
+spring.sql.init.mode=always
+spring.sql.init.schema-locations=classpath*:init/schema.sql
+spring.jpa.hibernate.ddl-auto=create
 
 # log
 logging.level.org.hibernate.SQL=trace
diff --git a/dbrepo-semantics-service/rest-service/src/test/resources/init/schema.sql b/dbrepo-semantics-service/rest-service/src/test/resources/init/schema.sql
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..f8482e47d5b0827e87537d940b54900a8f2d8f3b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/dbrepo-semantics-service/rest-service/src/test/resources/init/schema.sql
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+CREATE SCHEMA IF NOT EXISTS fda;
\ No newline at end of file