diff --git a/VERSION b/VERSION
index a4ffd370e30e185b33bbf1d4053086bc9d2700e5..d93b83ba274c3626ab14d06603f3570c0596a8a0 100644
--- a/VERSION
+++ b/VERSION
@@ -5,4 +5,4 @@
 # (this is same as gromacs)
 # Notice that "plumed --version" will return only 2.X
 # and "plumed --long-version" will return the full string
-2.2.0-dev
+2.2b