diff --git a/CHANGELOG b/CHANGELOG
index 83072ec0..3974cb43 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG
+++ b/CHANGELOG
@@ -1,3 +1,83 @@
+Version 1.6:
+ - Merge pull request #392 from leobago/develop
+ - Merge pull request #391 from leobago/O3
+ - only gcc again
+ - Merge pull request #390 from leobago/hotfix_warnings
+ - Merge pull request #389 from leobago/h5_async_buffer
+ - activate all compilers (reverse after pipeline run)
+ - compiles everything with build type release (adds O3 flag)
+ - removed O1
+ - removes compiler warnings
+ - free memory
+ - cleaned
+ - fixed vpr test
+ - itf checks vpr pass
+ - seems to work
+ - Merge pull request #388 from leobago/spack
+ - Merge remote-tracking branch 'origin/develop' into spack
+ - Merge pull request #387 from leobago/mpich_install
+ - pipeline only triggers PR-# branch checks and only triggers GCC for PR to develop. For PRs to master, the full pipeline is executed
+ - test pipeline
+ - test pipeline
+ - test pipeline
+ - test pipeline
+ - test pipeline
+ - test pipeline
+ - removed hdf5 check intel
+ - PGI without Fortran (GCC commented)
+ - PGI without Fortran
+ - escaped dollars
+ - added quotes to the cmd grep
+ - adjusted run wrapper
+ - tests intel mpich pgi and llvm
+ - prepared intel
+ - installed llvm compilers
+ - removes some artefacts and add a gitignore to include
+ - changes the install structure
+ - uncomment pgi stages
+ - installed pgi compilers
+ - fixes wrong type for blockMetaInfo_t
+ - added mpich
+ - quickfix
+ - source build script with a dot in shell env
+ - source build script with a dot in shell env
+ - source build script with a dot
+ - source build script
+ - uses another docker image
+ - added sionlib mpich
+ - installed hdf5 with mpich mpi
+ - export ld_library_path
+ - added mpich checks
+ - Merge pull request #386 from leobago/develop
+ - uncommented other checks
+ - corrected mount path
+ - update of PGI compilers to NVIDIA HPC SDK
+ - fixes Jenkinsfile for Clang and PGI CI
+ - Merge branch 'develop' of https://github.com/leobago/fti into develop
+ - Fix recover lL4 Warning, fast_forward bug and catch FTI_Init in heatDist
+ - Merge pull request #383 from leobago/bugfix/fix_osx_compile_error
+ - Update recover.c
+ - Renamed macros FREAD/FWRITE to FTI_EH_FREAD/FTI_EH_FWRITE/
+ - Merge pull request #382 from leobago/refactor-ci
+ - fixed linking issue for cpp app
+ - edited APIs for c++ string operability
+ - added test suite for c++ string operability
+ - Merge pull request #381 from leobago/refactor-ci
+ - fixed erroneous pointer assignment
+ - enhanced check for implicit var declaration in loop+fixed files formatting
+ - Merge pull request #378 from leobago/refactor-ci
+ - split standard/diffsizes into two suites each
+ - updated test stats in documentation
+ - updated docu + set fast_forward for tests
+ - Merge pull request #377 from leobago/refactor-ci
+ - fixed faulty step
+ - fixing compilerName missing variable
+ - moved compilation inside steps
+ - fixing nested steps
+ - moved compilation step inside stages
+ - restructured steps/stages of Jenkins
+ - Added fast_forward to convenient itf tests
+
 Version 1.5.1:
  - Merge branch 'master' of github.com:leobago/fti
  - Merge pull request #375 from leobago/develop
diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 9478f1bd..78a1d496 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ if(ENABLE_GPU)
   list(APPEND LANGUAGES "CUDA" "CXX")
 endif()
 
-project("FTI" VERSION 1.5.1 LANGUAGES ${LANGUAGES})
+project("FTI" VERSION 1.6 LANGUAGES ${LANGUAGES})
 
 # ----------------------- Global Properties and Set-up ------------------------
 
diff --git a/VERSION b/VERSION
index 26ca5946..810ee4e9 100644
--- a/VERSION
+++ b/VERSION
@@ -1 +1 @@
-1.5.1
+1.6