diff --git a/.Rprofile b/.Rprofile
index bf3c215a9..3e1a88ed8 100644
--- a/.Rprofile
+++ b/.Rprofile
@@ -13,6 +13,9 @@ if (file.exists("renv.lock") && file.exists("README.md") && !file.exists("renv/o
 # do not check if library and renv.lock are in sync, because normally renv.lock does not exist
 options(renv.config.synchronized.check = FALSE)
 
+# always set the renv project to the current directory (formerly done by renv/activate.R under version 0.16.0) 
+Sys.setenv("RENV_PROJECT" = getwd())
+
 source("renv/activate.R")
 
 # when increasing renvVersion first commit new version's activate script and
diff --git a/scripts/start/run.R b/scripts/start/run.R
index 5655b1fd8..15ad01541 100644
--- a/scripts/start/run.R
+++ b/scripts/start/run.R
@@ -261,6 +261,7 @@ run <- function() {
     if (normalizePath(renv::project()) != normalizePath(outputdir)) {
       warning("loaded renv=", normalizePath(renv::project()), " and outputdir=", normalizePath(outputdir), " must be equal.")
     }
+    message("Using ", normalizePath(renv::project()), " as renv project")
     argv <- c(get0("argv"), paste0("--renv=", renv::project()))
   }