diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 936ac291ae..51ec17e523 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1,4 +1,8 @@
-# openHAB 2 Core bundles
+# openHAB 2 Core
+
+[![Build Status](https://travis-ci.org/openhab/openhab-core.svg)](https://travis-ci.org/openhab/openhab-core)
+[![EPL-2.0](https://img.shields.io/badge/license-EPL%202-green.svg)](https://opensource.org/licenses/EPL-2.0)
+[![Bountysource](https://www.bountysource.com/badge/tracker?tracker_id=28054058)](https://www.bountysource.com/teams/openhab/issues?tracker_ids=28054058)
 
 This project contains core bundles of the openHAB 2 runtime.
 
@@ -9,36 +13,35 @@ It is picked up by the main [openHAB distribution build](https://github.com/open
 
 This means that what you build is primarily an artifact repository of OSGi bundles that can be used within smart home products.
 
-1\. Prerequisites
-=================
+## 1. Prerequisites
 
 The build infrastructure is based on Maven. 
 If you know Maven already then there won't be any surprises for you. 
 If you have not worked with Maven yet, just follow the instructions and everything will miraculously work ;-)
 
 What you need before you start:
-- Maven3 from https://maven.apache.org/download.html
+
+- Maven 3 from https://maven.apache.org/download.html
 
 Make sure that the "mvn" command is available on your path
 
-2\. Checkout
-============
+## 2. Checkout
 
-Checkout the source code from GitHub, e.g. by running
+Checkout the source code from GitHub, e.g. by running:
 
 git clone https://github.com/openhab/openhab-core.git
 
-3\. Building with Maven
-=======================
+## 3. Building with Maven
 
 To build this project from the sources, Maven takes care of everything:
+
 - set MAVEN_OPTS to "-Xms512m -Xmx1024m"
 - change into the openhab-core directory ("cd openhab-core“)
 - run "mvn clean install" to compile and package all sources
 
 If there are tests that are failing occasionally on your local build, run `mvn -DskipTests=true clean install` instead to skip them.
 
-# How to contribute
+## How to contribute
 
-If you want to become a contributor to the project, please read about [contributing](https://www.openhab.org/docs/developer/contributing/contributing.html) and check our [guidelines](https://www.openhab.org/docs/developer/development/guidelines.html) first.
+If you want to become a contributor to the project, please read about [contributing](https://www.openhab.org/docs/developer/contributing.html) and check our [guidelines](https://www.openhab.org/docs/developer/guidelines.html) first.