diff --git a/CMake/AddHpcCodingConvSubmodule.cmake b/CMake/AddHpcCodingConvSubmodule.cmake
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..35b31fd8d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/CMake/AddHpcCodingConvSubmodule.cmake
@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+# =============================================================================
+# Copyright (C) 2016-2020 Blue Brain Project
+#
+# See top-level LICENSE file for details.
+# =============================================================================
+
+include(FindPackageHandleStandardArgs)
+find_package(FindPkgConfig QUIET)
+
+find_path(
+    HpcCodingConv_PROJ
+  NAMES setup.cfg
+  PATHS "${CORENEURON_PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/CMake/hpc-coding-conventions/")
+
+find_package_handle_standard_args(HpcCodingConv REQUIRED_VARS HpcCodingConv_PROJ)
+
+if(NOT HpcCodingConv_FOUND)
+  find_package(Git 1.8.3 QUIET)
+  if(NOT ${GIT_FOUND})
+    message(FATAL_ERROR "git not found, clone repository with --recursive")
+  endif()
+  message(STATUS "Sub-module CMake/hpc-coding-conventions missing: running git submodule update --init")
+  execute_process(
+    COMMAND
+      ${GIT_EXECUTABLE} submodule update --init --
+      ${CORENEURON_PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/CMake/hpc-coding-conventions
+    WORKING_DIRECTORY ${CORENEURON_PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR})
+endif()
diff --git a/CMake/ClangFormatHelper.cmake b/CMake/ClangFormatHelper.cmake
deleted file mode 100644
index 692fc3e6b..000000000
--- a/CMake/ClangFormatHelper.cmake
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,42 +0,0 @@
-# =============================================================================
-# Copyright (C) 2016-2020 Blue Brain Project
-#
-# See top-level LICENSE file for details.
-# =============================================================================
-
-set(CLANG_FORMAT_MIN_VERSION "4.0")
-set(CLANG_FORMAT_MAX_VERSION "4.9")
-
-find_package(ClangFormat)
-
-if(CLANG_FORMAT_FOUND)
-  message(INFO "clang-format ${CLANG_FORMAT_EXECUTABLE} (${CLANG_FORMAT_VERSION}) found")
-endif()
-
-if(CLANG_FORMAT_FOUND)
-  file(COPY ${CORENEURON_PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/.clang-format DESTINATION ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR})
-
-  # all source files under coreneuron directory
-  file(
-    GLOB_RECURSE
-    SRC_FILES_FOR_CLANG_FORMAT
-    ${CORENEURON_PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/coreneuron/*.c
-    ${CORENEURON_PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/coreneuron/*.cpp
-    ${CORENEURON_PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/coreneuron/*.h*
-    ${CORENEURON_PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/coreneuron/*.ipp*)
-
-  # exclude random123
-  file(GLOB_RECURSE RANDOM123_FILES
-       ${CORENEURON_PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/coreneuron/utils/randoms/Random123/*.cpp
-       ${CORENEURON_PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/coreneuron/utils/randoms/Random123/*.h)
-
-  foreach(R123_PATH ${RANDOM123_FILES})
-    list(REMOVE_ITEM SRC_FILES_FOR_CLANG_FORMAT ${R123_PATH})
-  endforeach(R123_PATH)
-
-  add_custom_target(
-    clang-format
-    COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -DSOURCE_FILES:STRING="${SRC_FILES_FOR_CLANG_FORMAT}"
-            -DCLANG_FORMAT_EXECUTABLE=${CLANG_FORMAT_EXECUTABLE} -P
-            "${CORENEURON_PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/CMake/ClangFormatUtils.cmake")
-endif()
diff --git a/CMake/ClangFormatUtils.cmake b/CMake/ClangFormatUtils.cmake
deleted file mode 100644
index f6061ed5f..000000000
--- a/CMake/ClangFormatUtils.cmake
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,12 +0,0 @@
-# =============================================================================
-# Copyright (C) 2016-2020 Blue Brain Project
-#
-# See top-level LICENSE file for details.
-# =============================================================================
-
-string(REPLACE " " ";" FILES_TO_FORMAT ${SOURCE_FILES})
-
-foreach(SRC_FILE ${FILES_TO_FORMAT})
-  execute_process(COMMAND ${CLANG_FORMAT_EXECUTABLE} -i -style=file -fallback-style=none
-                          ${SRC_FILE})
-endforeach()
diff --git a/CMake/packages/FindClangFormat.cmake b/CMake/packages/FindClangFormat.cmake
deleted file mode 100644
index 4600cb92d..000000000
--- a/CMake/packages/FindClangFormat.cmake
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,34 +0,0 @@
-# =============================================================================
-# Copyright (C) 2016-2019 Blue Brain Project
-#
-# See top-level LICENSE file for details.
-# =============================================================================
-
-string(REPLACE ":" ";" _PATH $ENV{PATH})
-set(CLANG_FORMAT_FOUND OFF)
-foreach(p ${_PATH})
-    file(GLOB cand ${p}/clang-format ${p}/clang-format-[0-9].[0-9])
-    foreach(candidate ${cand})
-        set(CLANG_FORMAT_EXECUTABLE ${candidate})
-        execute_process(COMMAND ${CLANG_FORMAT_EXECUTABLE} -version OUTPUT_VARIABLE clang_out )
-        string(REGEX MATCH "version \([0-9]+\\.[0-9]\)" VERSION_OUTPUT ${clang_out})
-        set(CLANG_FORMAT_VERSION ${CMAKE_MATCH_1})
-        if ((${CLANG_FORMAT_VERSION} VERSION_GREATER ${CLANG_FORMAT_MIN_VERSION}) OR (${CLANG_FORMAT_VERSION} VERSION_EQUAL ${CLANG_FORMAT_MIN_VERSION}))
-            set (FIT_MIN_REQUIRED true)
-        else ()
-            set (FIT_MIN_REQUIRED false)
-        endif()
-        if ((${CLANG_FORMAT_VERSION} VERSION_LESS ${CLANG_FORMAT_MAX_VERSION}) OR (${CLANG_FORMAT_VERSION} VERSION_EQUAL ${CLANG_FORMAT_MAX_VERSION}))
-            set (FIT_MAX_REQUIRED true)
-        else ()
-            set (FIT_MAX_REQUIRED false)
-        endif()
-        if ( ${FIT_MIN_REQUIRED} AND ${FIT_MAX_REQUIRED})
-            set(CLANG_FORMAT_FOUND ON)
-            break()
-        endif()
-    endforeach()
-    if (${CLANG_FORMAT_FOUND})
-        break()
-    endif()
-endforeach()
diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 20f41b964..3422e3185 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -33,6 +33,13 @@ if(NOT CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR STREQUAL CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR)
   set(CORENEURON_AS_SUBPROJECT ON)
 endif()
 
+# =============================================================================
+# Include cmake modules path
+# =============================================================================
+list(APPEND CMAKE_MODULE_PATH ${CORENEURON_PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/CMake
+            ${CORENEURON_PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/CMake/packages
+            ${CORENEURON_PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/CMake/config)
+
 # =============================================================================
 # HPC Coding Conventions
 # =============================================================================
@@ -43,15 +50,9 @@ set(CORENRN_ClangFormat_EXCLUDES_RE
 set(CORENRN_CMakeFormat_EXCLUDES_RE
     ".*/external/.*$$" ".*/CMake/packages/.*$$"
     CACHE STRING "list of regular expressions to exclude CMake files from formatting" FORCE)
+include(AddHpcCodingConvSubmodule)
 add_subdirectory(CMake/hpc-coding-conventions/cpp)
 
-# =============================================================================
-# Include cmake modules path
-# =============================================================================
-list(APPEND CMAKE_MODULE_PATH ${CORENEURON_PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/CMake
-            ${CORENEURON_PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/CMake/packages
-            ${CORENEURON_PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/CMake/config)
-
 # =============================================================================
 # Include common cmake modules
 # =============================================================================
@@ -62,6 +63,7 @@ include(SetRpath)
 include(CTest)
 include(AddRandom123Submodule)
 include(AddCLI11Submodule)
+
 add_subdirectory(${CORENEURON_PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/external/CLI11)
 
 # =============================================================================
@@ -106,7 +108,6 @@ endif()
 # Include cmake modules after cmake options
 # =============================================================================
 include(OpenAccHelper)
-include(ClangFormatHelper)
 
 # =============================================================================
 # Common dependencies