diff --git a/VERSION b/VERSION
index 83666456dad7e8bc3b261b9846942f39e25b3ed6..f8b066f9d6415ca325441623084620099403a0dc 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
-2.4.0-dev
+2.4a