diff --git a/.pre-commit-config.yaml b/.pre-commit-config.yaml
index 83431d5517d12146800ec22a5fa7fb2e14704946..8c0e4d533c40fca3fa554229528663ea5db1f98a 100644
--- a/.pre-commit-config.yaml
+++ b/.pre-commit-config.yaml
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ repos:
         files: app
         args: [--check]
 -   repo: https://github.com/charliermarsh/ruff-pre-commit
-    rev: 'v0.0.286'
+    rev: 'v0.0.287'
     hooks:
     -   id: ruff
 -   repo: https://github.com/PyCQA/isort
diff --git a/app/api/utils.py b/app/api/utils.py
index 93f190fd0fa4e10ec3078b03bcf643b841210b8d..3a6a3621862a3cc6bc4a8389b56e35e05c100a3b 100644
--- a/app/api/utils.py
+++ b/app/api/utils.py
@@ -160,8 +160,7 @@ async def start_workflow_execution(
 
     nextflow_command = nextflow_command_template.render(
         repo=git_repo,
-        params_file_name=params_file_name,
-        params_mount_path=settings.PARAMS_BUCKET_MOUNT_PATH,
+        parameters=parameters,
         execution_id=execution.execution_id,
         configuration=settings.NX_CONFIG,
         nx_bin=settings.NX_BIN,
diff --git a/app/check_slurm_connection.py b/app/check_slurm_connection.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..559b76fae0aa2cb77cb1e920b83bf809e8ac215c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/app/check_slurm_connection.py
@@ -0,0 +1,42 @@
+import logging
+
+import httpx
+from fastapi import status
+from tenacity import after_log, before_log, retry, stop_after_attempt, wait_fixed
+
+from app.core.config import settings
+
+logging.basicConfig(level=logging.INFO)
+logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
+
+max_tries = 60 * 3  # 3 minutes
+wait_seconds = 2
+
+
+@retry(
+    stop=stop_after_attempt(max_tries),
+    wait=wait_fixed(wait_seconds),
+    before=before_log(logger, logging.INFO),
+    after=after_log(logger, logging.WARN),
+)
+def init() -> None:
+    headers = {"X-SLURM-USER-TOKEN": settings.SLURM_TOKEN, "X-SLURM-USER-NAME": settings.SLURM_USER}
+
+    try:
+        response = httpx.get(
+            f"{settings.SLURM_ENDPOINT}slurm/v0.0.38/ping", timeout=5.0, follow_redirects=False, headers=headers
+        )
+        assert response.status_code == status.HTTP_200_OK
+    except Exception as e:
+        logger.error(e)
+        raise e
+
+
+def main() -> None:
+    logger.info("Check Slurm Cluster connection")
+    init()
+    logger.info("Slurm Cluster connection established")
+
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    main()
diff --git a/mako_templates/nextflow_command.template b/mako_templates/nextflow_command.template
index 7804b17cc100e048f2f9ec2604948520123d4d22..60eced0c77fb422d5fc3a7cce72d3d1ee068cffb 100644
--- a/mako_templates/nextflow_command.template
+++ b/mako_templates/nextflow_command.template
@@ -17,4 +17,6 @@ ${nx_bin} run ${repo.repo_url} \
 -c ${configuration} \
 % endif
 -revision ${repo.git_commit_hash} \
--params-file ${params_mount_path}/${params_file_name}
+% for param_name, param_value in parameters.items():
+--${param_name} "${param_value}" \
+% endfor
diff --git a/requirements-dev.txt b/requirements-dev.txt
index d0d92a796d288f0eb8b388dc4aba1b52be56233d..31f20b7adbce60a208165dafaf757886602dfa0d 100644
--- a/requirements-dev.txt
+++ b/requirements-dev.txt
@@ -12,4 +12,4 @@ mypy>=1.5.0,<1.6.0
 boto3-stubs-lite[s3]>=1.28.0,<1.29.0
 types-requests
 # Miscellaneous
-pre-commit>=3.3.0,<3.4.0
+pre-commit>=3.4.0,<3.5.0
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 8b72521355b650a3da590b4bb9e920c6ae3a60a7..305fcb33783a639ebbcd92c418035d7811f7f3b3 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 clowmdb>=2.2.0,<2.3.0
 
 # Webserver packages
-anyio>=3.7.0,<3.8.0
+anyio>=3.7.0,<4.0.0
 fastapi>=0.103.0,<0.104.0
 pydantic>=2.3.0,<2.4.0
 pydantic-settings
diff --git a/scripts/prestart.sh b/scripts/prestart.sh
index d0fbfb3441bb310ef30cda4625cb99fcbc2e6ae0..f7cf08b61cef15de66abae7793fc0ef43a074f68 100755
--- a/scripts/prestart.sh
+++ b/scripts/prestart.sh
@@ -2,5 +2,7 @@
 
 # Check Connection to Ceph RGW
 python app/check_ceph_connection.py
+# Check Connection to Slurm Cluster
+python app/check_slurm_connection.py
 # Let the DB start
 python app/check_database_connection.py