diff --git a/.github/workflows/pytest-frozen-ubuntu-20.04.yml b/.github/workflows/pytest-frozen-ubuntu-20.04.yml
index 6d49145ed7..b015376633 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/pytest-frozen-ubuntu-20.04.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/pytest-frozen-ubuntu-20.04.yml
@@ -33,6 +33,7 @@ jobs:
 
       - name: Downgrade git to the Ubuntu official repository's version
         run: |
+          sudo apt update
           sudo apt remove git git-man
           sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:git-core/ppa
           sudo apt install git
diff --git a/.github/workflows/stale.yml b/.github/workflows/stale.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..8e121b39fa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/workflows/stale.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+name: "Close stale issues and stale PRs"
+on:
+  schedule:
+    - cron: "30 1 * * 7" # Once a week
+
+jobs:
+  stale:
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    permissions:
+      issues: write
+      pull-requests: write
+    steps:
+      - uses: actions/stale@v7
+        with:
+          stale-issue-message: "This issue is stale because it has been inactive for more than 30 days. More information is required. Remove stale label or comment or this will be closed in 20 days."
+          stale-pr-message: "This PR is stale because it has been open more than 45 days with no activity. Remove stale label or comment if it is still useful. In any case a PR will be automatically closed."
+          close-issue-message: "This issue was closed because it has been stalled for 20 days with no activity."
+          days-before-stale: 30
+          days-before-close: 20
+          days-before-pr-close: -1
+          any-of-labels: "awaiting-changes,awaiting-feedback"
+          exempt-issue-labels: "WIP"
+          exempt-pr-labels: "WIP"
+          repo-token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 0a9c05764c..593e74be8f 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@
 - Turn on automatic clean up of intermediate files in `work/` on successful pipeline completion in full-test config ([#2163](https://github.com/nf-core/tools/pull/2163)) [Contributed by @jfy133]
 - Add documentation to `usage.md` on how to use `params.yml` files, based on nf-core/ampliseq text ([#2173](https://github.com/nf-core/tools/pull/2173/)) [Contributed by @jfy133, @d4straub]
 - Make jobs automatically resubmit for a much wider range of exit codes (now `104` and `130..145`) ([#2170](https://github.com/nf-core/tools/pull/2170))
+- Add a stale GHA wich stale + close issues and stale PRs with specific labels ([#2183](https://github.com/nf-core/tools/pull/2183))
 - Remove problematic sniffer code in samplesheet_check.py that could give false positive 'missing header' errors ([https://github.com/nf-core/tools/pull/2194]) [Contributed by @Midnighter, @jfy133]
 - Consistent syntax for branch checks in PRs ([#2202](https://github.com/nf-core/tools/issues/2202))
 - Fixed minor Jinja2 templating bug that caused the PR template to miss a newline
@@ -30,6 +31,7 @@
 ### General
 
 - `nf-core modules/subworkflows info` now prints the include statement for the module/subworkflow ([#2182](https://github.com/nf-core/tools/pull/2182)).
+- Add a stale GHA wich stale + close issues and stale PRs with specific labels ([#2183](https://github.com/nf-core/tools/pull/2183))
 - update minimum version of rich to 13.3.1 ([#2185](https://github.com/nf-core/tools/pull/2185))
 - Add the Nextflow version to Gitpod container matching the minimal Nextflow version for nf-core (according to `nextflow.config`) ([#2196](https://github.com/nf-core/tools/pull/2196))
 - Use `nfcore/gitpod:dev` container in the dev branch ([#2196](https://github.com/nf-core/tools/pull/2196))
diff --git a/nf_core/pipeline-template/.github/workflows/stale.yml b/nf_core/pipeline-template/.github/workflows/stale.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..8e121b39fa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/nf_core/pipeline-template/.github/workflows/stale.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+name: "Close stale issues and stale PRs"
+on:
+  schedule:
+    - cron: "30 1 * * 7" # Once a week
+
+jobs:
+  stale:
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    permissions:
+      issues: write
+      pull-requests: write
+    steps:
+      - uses: actions/stale@v7
+        with:
+          stale-issue-message: "This issue is stale because it has been inactive for more than 30 days. More information is required. Remove stale label or comment or this will be closed in 20 days."
+          stale-pr-message: "This PR is stale because it has been open more than 45 days with no activity. Remove stale label or comment if it is still useful. In any case a PR will be automatically closed."
+          close-issue-message: "This issue was closed because it has been stalled for 20 days with no activity."
+          days-before-stale: 30
+          days-before-close: 20
+          days-before-pr-close: -1
+          any-of-labels: "awaiting-changes,awaiting-feedback"
+          exempt-issue-labels: "WIP"
+          exempt-pr-labels: "WIP"
+          repo-token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}