diff --git a/.mergify.yml b/.mergify.yml
index 6476289ed..d9a318886 100644
--- a/.mergify.yml
+++ b/.mergify.yml
@@ -20,4 +20,4 @@ pull_request_rules:
     actions:
       backport:
         branches:
-          - stable/0.6
+          - stable/0.7
diff --git a/qiskit_machine_learning/VERSION.txt b/qiskit_machine_learning/VERSION.txt
index faef31a43..a3df0a695 100644
--- a/qiskit_machine_learning/VERSION.txt
+++ b/qiskit_machine_learning/VERSION.txt
@@ -1 +1 @@
-0.7.0
+0.8.0