diff --git a/dnet-pace-core/src/main/java/eu/dnetlib/pace/config/DedupConfig.java b/dnet-pace-core/src/main/java/eu/dnetlib/pace/config/DedupConfig.java
index d7396406f..1cfcb089c 100644
--- a/dnet-pace-core/src/main/java/eu/dnetlib/pace/config/DedupConfig.java
+++ b/dnet-pace-core/src/main/java/eu/dnetlib/pace/config/DedupConfig.java
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ import java.util.HashMap;
 import java.util.List;
 import java.util.Map;
 import java.util.Map.Entry;
+import java.util.function.BiFunction;
 
 import eu.dnetlib.pace.util.PaceException;
 import org.antlr.stringtemplate.StringTemplate;
@@ -73,7 +74,11 @@ public class DedupConfig implements Config, Serializable {
 			template.setAttribute(e.getKey(), e.getValue());
 		}
 		for (final Entry<String, String> e : params.entrySet()) {
-			template.setAttribute(e.getKey(), e.getValue());
+			if (template.getAttribute(e.getKey()) != null) {
+				template.getAttributes().computeIfPresent(e.getKey(), (o, o2) -> e.getValue());
+			} else {
+				template.setAttribute(e.getKey(), e.getValue());
+			}
 		}
 
 		final String json = template.toString();
diff --git a/dnet-pace-core/src/test/java/eu/dnetlib/pace/config/ConfigTest.java b/dnet-pace-core/src/test/java/eu/dnetlib/pace/config/ConfigTest.java
index 8be6098f3..6b5a2b99c 100644
--- a/dnet-pace-core/src/test/java/eu/dnetlib/pace/config/ConfigTest.java
+++ b/dnet-pace-core/src/test/java/eu/dnetlib/pace/config/ConfigTest.java
@@ -1,8 +1,12 @@
 package eu.dnetlib.pace.config;
 
+import com.google.common.collect.Maps;
 import eu.dnetlib.pace.AbstractPaceTest;
 import org.junit.Test;
 
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.util.Map;
+
 import static org.junit.Assert.assertEquals;
 import static org.junit.Assert.assertNotNull;
 
@@ -36,7 +40,22 @@ public class ConfigTest extends AbstractPaceTest {
 
 		DedupConfig load = DedupConfig.load(readFromClasspath("result.pace.conf.json"));
 
+		assertNotNull(load);
 		System.out.println(load.toString());
+
 	}
 
+	@Test
+	public void testLoadDefaults() throws IOException {
+
+		final Map<String, String> config = Maps.newHashMap();
+		config.put("entityType", "organization");
+		config.put("configurationId", "dedup-organization-simple");
+		final DedupConfig dedupConf = DedupConfig.loadDefault(config);
+
+		System.out.println("dedupConf = " + dedupConf);
+	}
+
+
+
 }