diff --git a/templates/runtime_config.jsonc b/templates/runtime_config.jsonc
index 413d2f7b1..0eb2f095f 100755
--- a/templates/runtime_config.jsonc
+++ b/templates/runtime_config.jsonc
@@ -55,8 +55,6 @@
 
   "DATA_CATALOG": "./diagnostics/example_multicase/esm_catalog_CMIP_synthetic_r1i1p1f1_gr1.json",
 
-  // Backwards compatibility
-  "MODEL_DATA_ROOT": "../inputdata/mdtf_test_data",
   // Parent directory containing observational data used by individual PODs.
   "OBS_DATA_ROOT": "../inputdata/obs_data",