diff --git a/mart/configs/lightning.yaml b/mart/configs/lightning.yaml
index 714250f3..0174bab3 100644
--- a/mart/configs/lightning.yaml
+++ b/mart/configs/lightning.yaml
@@ -38,8 +38,9 @@ tags: ["dev"]
 # Train it or not.
 fit: True
 
-# check performance on test set, using the best model achieved during training
+# check performance on validation and test set, using the best model achieved during training
 # lightning chooses best model based on metric specified in checkpoint callback
+validate: False
 test: True
 
 # Whether to resume training using configuration and checkpoint in specified directory
diff --git a/mart/tasks/lightning.py b/mart/tasks/lightning.py
index 3539b81f..65795c8e 100644
--- a/mart/tasks/lightning.py
+++ b/mart/tasks/lightning.py
@@ -77,6 +77,11 @@ def lightning(cfg: DictConfig) -> Tuple[Dict[str, Any], Dict[str, Any]]:
 
     train_metrics = trainer.callback_metrics
 
+    # Evaluate model on validation set, using the best model achieved during training
+    if cfg.get("validate"):
+        log.info("Starting validation!")
+        trainer.validate(model=model, datamodule=datamodule, ckpt_path=ckpt_path)
+
     # Evaluate model on test set, using the best model achieved during training
     if cfg.get("test"):
         log.info("Starting testing!")