diff --git a/VERSION b/VERSION
index 948dea0845..332c10b847 100644
--- a/VERSION
+++ b/VERSION
@@ -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
-2.6b
+2.6.0