diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index 59e4450ccf8..05cbe3136be 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -31,11 +31,10 @@ python:
 # We want to fail early if there is an installation problem, so
 # we install here, although we uninstall below
 install:
-    - pip install --upgrade pip
-    - pip install cython # this can go once we have scipy wheels for 3.8
-    - pip install -r requirements.txt
-    - pip install -r test_requirements.txt --upgrade --upgrade-strategy only-if-needed
-    - pip install -r docs_requirements.txt
+    - pip install --upgrade pip setuptools wheel
+    - pip install -r requirements.txt --use-feature=2020-resolver
+    - pip install -r test_requirements.txt --use-feature=2020-resolver
+    - pip install -r docs_requirements.txt --use-feature=2020-resolver
     - pip install .
 
 before_script: # fetch full history so we can generate db fixtures