diff --git a/infrastructure/build/configuration.mk b/infrastructure/build/configuration.mk
index f6f8b9388..2be134454 100644
--- a/infrastructure/build/configuration.mk
+++ b/infrastructure/build/configuration.mk
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@
 #
 # Run this make file to generate configuration found in SOURCE_DIR
 # to WORKING_DIR. Uses PROJECT to know what to call master files.
+# Extracts rose-metadata from repos in EXTRACT_ROSE_META
 #
 
 export CONFIG_DIR=$(WORKING_DIR)/configuration
@@ -18,11 +19,26 @@ configuration_files: $(WORKING_DIR)/configuration_mod.f90 \
 $(CONFIG_DIR)/rose-meta.json $(CONFIG_DIR)/config_namelists.txt: $(META_FILE_DIR)/rose-meta.conf
 	$(call MESSAGE,Generating namelist configuration file.)
 	$(Q)mkdir -p $(dir $@)
+
+ifdef EXTRA_ROSE_META
+ifdef APPS_ROOT_DIR
+	$(Q)for REPO in $(EXTRA_ROSE_META) ; do \
+		python $(APPS_ROOT_DIR)/build/extract/extract_science.py \
+			-r $$REPO \
+			-d $(APPS_ROOT_DIR)/dependencies.yaml \
+			-w $(WORKING_DIR) \
+		; done
+else
+	$(error Not expecting to extract external rose-meta when APPS_ROOT_DIR not defined)
+endif
+endif
+
 ifdef APPS_ROOT_DIR
 	$(Q)rose_picker $(META_FILE_DIR)/rose-meta.conf          \
 	                -directory $(CONFIG_DIR)                 \
 	                -include_dirs $(APPS_ROOT_DIR)/rose-meta \
-	                -include_dirs $(CORE_ROOT_DIR)/rose-meta
+	                -include_dirs $(CORE_ROOT_DIR)/rose-meta \
+					-include_dirs $(WORKING_DIR)/../rose-meta
 else
 	$(Q)rose_picker $(META_FILE_DIR)/rose-meta.conf \
 	                -directory $(CONFIG_DIR)        \