diff --git a/backend/src/main/java/uk/ac/ebi/spot/ols/Ols4Backend.java b/backend/src/main/java/uk/ac/ebi/spot/ols/Ols4Backend.java
index 849bdcd0f..76608a943 100644
--- a/backend/src/main/java/uk/ac/ebi/spot/ols/Ols4Backend.java
+++ b/backend/src/main/java/uk/ac/ebi/spot/ols/Ols4Backend.java
@@ -3,6 +3,9 @@
 
 import org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication;
 import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication;
+import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;
+import org.springframework.web.servlet.config.annotation.CorsRegistry;
+import org.springframework.web.servlet.config.annotation.WebMvcConfigurer;
 
 @SpringBootApplication
 public class Ols4Backend {
@@ -11,4 +14,14 @@ public static void main(String[] args) {
         SpringApplication.run(Ols4Backend.class, args);
     }
 
+    @Bean
+    public WebMvcConfigurer corsConfigurer() {
+        return new WebMvcConfigurer() {
+            @Override
+            public void addCorsMappings(CorsRegistry registry) {
+                registry.addMapping("/api/**").allowedOrigins("*").allowedHeaders("*").allowedMethods("GET");
+            }
+        };
+    }
+
 }
diff --git a/backend/src/main/java/uk/ac/ebi/spot/ols/controller/api/v1/V1SearchController.java b/backend/src/main/java/uk/ac/ebi/spot/ols/controller/api/v1/V1SearchController.java
index ca6d2fdaa..a1f4ac641 100644
--- a/backend/src/main/java/uk/ac/ebi/spot/ols/controller/api/v1/V1SearchController.java
+++ b/backend/src/main/java/uk/ac/ebi/spot/ols/controller/api/v1/V1SearchController.java
@@ -108,7 +108,7 @@ public void search(
             }
         }
 
-        if (fieldList.contains("score"))
+        if (fieldList != null && fieldList.contains("score"))
            solrQuery.setFields("_json","score");
         else
             solrQuery.setFields("_json");