diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 6b06966a..a3d61abc 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 # Process this file with autoconf to produce a configure script.
 
 # this defines the CORE version number, must be static for AC_INIT
-AC_INIT(core, 8.0.0)
+AC_INIT(core, 8.1.0)
 
 # autoconf and automake initialization
 AC_CONFIG_SRCDIR([netns/version.h.in])
diff --git a/daemon/pyproject.toml b/daemon/pyproject.toml
index 18a4464e..f1ab7dd4 100644
--- a/daemon/pyproject.toml
+++ b/daemon/pyproject.toml
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 [tool.poetry]
 name = "core"
-version = "8.0.0"
+version = "8.1.0"
 description = "CORE Common Open Research Emulator"
 authors = ["Boeing Research and Technology"]
 license = "BSD-2-Clause"