diff --git a/.Rbuildignore b/.Rbuildignore
index 46e38cbe2..9c5bd3a56 100644
--- a/.Rbuildignore
+++ b/.Rbuildignore
@@ -21,3 +21,4 @@
 ^CITATION.cff$
 ^CONTRIBUTING.md
 ^cran-comments\.md$
+^CRAN-SUBMISSION$
diff --git a/DESCRIPTION b/DESCRIPTION
index 7d25b9ede..1f1248aa7 100644
--- a/DESCRIPTION
+++ b/DESCRIPTION
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 Package: mlr3
 Title: Machine Learning in R - Next Generation
-Version: 0.17.0
+Version: 0.17.0.9000
 Authors@R:
   c(
     person("Michel", "Lang", , "michellang@gmail.com", role = c("cre", "aut"),
diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index e715c9d09..395a5dd53 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+# mlr3 (development version)
+
 # mlr3 0.17.0
 
 * Learners cannot be added to the `HotstartStack` anymore when the model is missing.