diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index 4e44686a..2eab90da 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -3966,7 +3966,7 @@ dependencies = [
 
 [[package]]
 name = "policy-server"
-version = "1.15.0"
+version = "1.16.0-rc1"
 dependencies = [
  "anyhow",
  "axum",
diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index 60e2dc5e..aba94a9c 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 [package]
 name = "policy-server"
-version = "1.15.0"
+version = "1.16.0-rc1"
 authors = [
   "Kubewarden Developers <kubewarden@suse.de>",
   "Flavio Castelli <fcastelli@suse.com>",