diff --git a/jupyterhub/base/Dockerfile b/jupyterhub/base/Dockerfile
index b5d5d1628c1365c4ebe2f9fe4992a235e0fc4024..f535f76bf03c05252e8042efe2f659860d20a249 100755
--- a/jupyterhub/base/Dockerfile
+++ b/jupyterhub/base/Dockerfile
@@ -92,7 +92,17 @@ RUN apt-get update && \
     apt-get clean && \
     python${PYTHON_VERSION} -m pip install jupyterlab_latex && \
     jupyter labextension install @jupyterlab/latex
-    
+
+RUN apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys E298A3A825C0D65DFD57CBB651716619E084DAB9 && \
+    add-apt-repository 'deb https://cloud.r-project.org/bin/linux/ubuntu/ bionic-cran40/' && \
+    apt-get update && \
+    apt-get install -y  r-base r-base-html && \
+    apt-get clean
+
+RUN R -e "install.packages('IRkernel')" && \
+    R -e "IRkernel::installspec(user = FALSE)" && \
+    jupyter labextension install @techrah/text-shortcuts
+
 RUN chmod -x /etc/update-motd.d/*
 
 WORKDIR "${HOME}"