diff --git a/demos/brunel_simulation/CMakeLists.txt b/demos/brunel_simulation/CMakeLists.txt
index 6fd813ebf9dbf4b4c0e2db0852fcc1879ec51b1a..abed309cc47c5aef4e1c2248cda9569186a98b89 100644
--- a/demos/brunel_simulation/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/demos/brunel_simulation/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -21,17 +21,26 @@
 
 get_filename_component(NEST_DIR ${with-nest} DIRECTORY)
 
-set(SCRIPT_FILENAME "${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/run_sim.sh")
 execute_process(
-    COMMAND ${NEST_CONFIG} --python-executable
-    RESULT_VARIABLE RES_VAR
-    OUTPUT_VARIABLE PYTHON_EXECUTABLE
-    OUTPUT_STRIP_TRAILING_WHITESPACE
+  COMMAND ${NEST_CONFIG} --python-executable
+  RESULT_VARIABLE RES_VAR
+  OUTPUT_VARIABLE PYTHON_EXECUTABLE
+  OUTPUT_STRIP_TRAILING_WHITESPACE
 )
-message(STATUS "PYTHON_EXECUTABLE ${PYTHON_EXECUTABLE}")
-
+  
+set(SCRIPT_FILENAME "${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/run_sim.sh")
 configure_file(${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/run_sim.sh.in ${SCRIPT_FILENAME})
-file(COPY ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/brunel_example.py ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/nest_sim.py DESTINATION ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR})
-add_custom_target(brunel_simulation ALL chmod "+x" "run_sim.sh"
+
+set(
+  BRUNEL_SIM_SOURCE_FILES
+  ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/brunel_example.py
+  ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/nest_sim.py
+)
+
+add_custom_target(
+  brunel_simulation
+  ALL
+  COMMAND chmod "+x" "run_sim.sh"
+  COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E copy_if_different ${BRUNEL_SIM_SOURCE_FILES} ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}
   WORKING_DIRECTORY ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}
-  DEPENDS ${SCRIPT_FILENAME} ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/brunel_example.py ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/nest_sim.py)
+  DEPENDS ${SCRIPT_FILENAME} ${BRUNEL_SIM_SOURCE_FILES})