diff --git a/VERSION.txt b/VERSION.txt
index 86521b4b4d..7d6c799dbb 100644
--- a/VERSION.txt
+++ b/VERSION.txt
@@ -5,4 +5,4 @@
 # (this is same as gromacs)
 # Notice that "plumed info --version" will return only 2.X
 # and "plumed info --long-version" will return the full string
-2.9.0-dev
+2.10.0-dev