diff --git a/science/openems/Makefile b/science/openems/Makefile
index 3488ec1e3236..f7d5c0db03d2 100644
--- a/science/openems/Makefile
+++ b/science/openems/Makefile
@@ -1,43 +1,44 @@
 PORTNAME=	openems
 DISTVERSIONPREFIX=	v
 DISTVERSION=	0.0.35-76
 DISTVERSIONSUFFIX=	-gd4448fa
 CATEGORIES=	science
 
 MAINTAINER=	yuri@FreeBSD.org
 COMMENT=	Electromagnetic field solver using the EC-FDTD method
 
 LICENSE=	GPLv3
 LICENSE_FILE=	${WRKSRC}/COPYING
 
 ONLY_FOR_ARCHS=	amd64 powerpc64 powerpc64le
 ONLY_FOR_ARCHS_REASON=	upstream only supports amd64 and powerpc64
 
 LIB_DEPENDS=	libboost_system.so:devel/boost-libs \
 		libCSXCAD.so:cad/csxcad \
 		libexpat.so:textproc/expat2 \
 		libfparser-4.5.so:math/fparser \
 		libhdf5.so:science/hdf5 \
 		libpng16.so:graphics/png \
 		libsz.so:science/libaec \
 		libtiff.so:graphics/tiff \
 		libtinyxml.so:textproc/tinyxml \
 		libvtkCommonCore-9.1.so:math/vtk9
 
 USES=		cmake jpeg pkgconfig
 USE_LDCONFIG=	yes
 
 USE_GITHUB=	yes
 GH_ACCOUNT=	thliebig
 GH_PROJECT=	openEMS
 
-CMAKE_ARGS=	-DVTK_DIR=${LOCALBASE}/lib/cmake/vtk-9.1
+CMAKE_ARGS=	-DVTK_DIR=${LOCALBASE}/lib/cmake/vtk-9.1 \
+		-DLOCALBASE=${LOCALBASE}
 
 CXXFLAGS+=	-I${LOCALBASE}/include/fparser # fparser.pc probably returns a wrong value
 
 DATADIR=	${PREFIX}/share/openEMS
 
 post-install:
 	@${REINPLACE_CMD} -i '' -e 's|#!/bin/bash|#!/bin/sh|' ${STAGEDIR}${PREFIX}/bin/openEMS.sh
 
 .include <bsd.port.mk>
diff --git a/science/openems/files/patch-hdf5 b/science/openems/files/patch-hdf5
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..b88530ce9aa7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/science/openems/files/patch-hdf5
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+--- CMakeLists.txt.orig	2022-02-15 18:12:06 UTC
++++ CMakeLists.txt
+@@ -114,7 +114,9 @@ message(STATUS "TinyXML_LIBRARY: ${TinyXML_LIBRARY}")
+ INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES( ${TinyXML_INCLUDE_DIR} )
+ 
+ # hdf5
+-find_package(HDF5 1.8 COMPONENTS C HL REQUIRED)
++set(HDF5_INCLUDE_DIRS "${LOCALBASE}/include")
++set(HDF5_LIBRARIES "-L${LOCALBASE}/lib -lhdf5 -lhdf5_cpp")
++set(HDF5_LIBRARY_DIRS "${LOCALBASE}/lib")
+ INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES (${HDF5_INCLUDE_DIRS})
+ link_directories(${HDF5_LIBRARIES})
+ # hdf5 compat