diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/science/math/mkl/default.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/science/math/mkl/default.nix
index 2df39b330c45..016864abed8c 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/science/math/mkl/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/science/math/mkl/default.nix
@@ -1,4 +1,12 @@
-{ stdenvNoCC, fetchurl, rpmextract, undmg, darwin, enableStatic ? false }:
+{ stdenvNoCC
+, fetchurl
+, pkgconfig
+, rpmextract
+, undmg
+, darwin
+, enableStatic ? false
+}:
+
 /*
   For details on using mkl as a blas provider for python packages such as numpy,
   numexpr, scipy, etc., see the Python section of the NixPkgs manual.
@@ -44,6 +52,10 @@ in stdenvNoCC.mkDerivation {
     else
       [ rpmextract ];
 
+  installCheckInputs = [ pkgconfig ];
+
+  doInstallCheck = true;
+
   buildPhase = if stdenvNoCC.isDarwin then ''
     for f in Contents/Resources/pkg/*.tgz; do
       tar xzvf $f
@@ -77,6 +89,7 @@ in stdenvNoCC.mkDerivation {
       bn=$(basename $f)
       substituteInPlace $f \
         --replace "prefix=<INSTALLDIR>/mkl" "prefix=$out" \
+        --replace $\{MKLROOT} "$out" \
         --replace "lib/intel64_lin" "lib"
     done
 
@@ -139,6 +152,11 @@ in stdenvNoCC.mkDerivation {
     install_name_tool -change @rpath/libtbbmalloc.dylib $out/lib/libtbbmalloc.dylib $out/lib/libtbbmalloc_proxy.dylib
   '';
 
+  # Validate pkgconfig files, since they break often on updates.
+  installCheckPhase = ''
+    pkg-config --validate $out/lib/pkgconfig/*.pc
+  '';
+
   # Per license agreement, do not modify the binary
   dontStrip = true;
   dontPatchELF = true;