diff --git a/init/eessi_defaults b/init/eessi_defaults
index 05bcb5c8..410d900f 100644
--- a/init/eessi_defaults
+++ b/init/eessi_defaults
@@ -9,7 +9,15 @@
 
 export EESSI_VERSION_DEFAULT='__EESSI_VERSION_DEFAULT__'
 
-export EESSI_VERSION="${EESSI_VERSION_OVERRIDE:=${EESSI_VERSION_DEFAULT}}"
+# if $EESSI_VERSION_OVERRIDE is set and has a suffix, e.g. 2025.06-001,
+# we split it into EESSI_VERSION (2025.06) and EESSI_SOFTWARE_LAYER_VERSION_SUFFIX (-001)
+if [[ "${EESSI_VERSION_OVERRIDE}" == *-* ]]; then
+    export EESSI_VERSION=${EESSI_VERSION_OVERRIDE%-*}
+    export EESSI_SOFTWARE_LAYER_VERSION_SUFFIX="-${EESSI_VERSION_OVERRIDE#*-}"
+else
+    export EESSI_VERSION="${EESSI_VERSION_OVERRIDE:=${EESSI_VERSION_DEFAULT}}"
+    export EESSI_SOFTWARE_LAYER_VERSION_SUFFIX=""
+fi
 
 # use different defaults for RISC-V clients
 if [[ $(uname -m) == "riscv64" ]]; then
diff --git a/init/minimal_eessi_env b/init/minimal_eessi_env
index 5e513c3c..72dda58e 100644
--- a/init/minimal_eessi_env
+++ b/init/minimal_eessi_env
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ EESSI_INIT_DIR_PATH=$(dirname $(readlink -f $BASH_SOURCE))
 #   script takes *_OVERRIDEs into account
 source ${EESSI_INIT_DIR_PATH}/eessi_defaults
 
-export EESSI_PREFIX=$EESSI_CVMFS_REPO/versions/$EESSI_VERSION
+export EESSI_PREFIX=$EESSI_CVMFS_REPO/versions/${EESSI_VERSION}${EESSI_SOFTWARE_LAYER_VERSION_SUFFIX}
 
 if [[ $(uname -s) == 'Linux' ]]; then
     export EESSI_OS_TYPE='linux'
diff --git a/init/modules/EESSI/2023.06.lua b/init/modules/EESSI/2023.06.lua
index 2ddcf194..ccf410ad 100644
--- a/init/modules/EESSI/2023.06.lua
+++ b/init/modules/EESSI/2023.06.lua
@@ -16,13 +16,18 @@ local eessi_repo = "/cvmfs/software.eessi.io"
 local eessi_prefix = pathJoin(eessi_repo, "versions", eessi_version)
 local eessi_compat_prefix = pathJoin(eessi_prefix, "compat")
 local eessi_init_prefix = pathJoin(eessi_prefix, "init")
+local eessi_software_layer_version_suffix = ""
 local eessi_os_type = "linux"
 -- for RISC-V clients we need to do some overrides, as things are stored in different CVMFS repositories
 if (subprocess("uname -m"):gsub("\n$","") == "riscv64") then
     if (eessi_version == "2023.06" or eessi_version == "20240402") then
-        eessi_version = os.getenv("EESSI_VERSION_OVERRIDE") or "20240402"
+        eessi_version_override = os.getenv("EESSI_VERSION_OVERRIDE") or ""
+        index_suffix = string.find(eessi_version_override, '-')
+        if index_suffix then
+            eessi_software_layer_version_suffix = string.sub(eessi_version_override, index_suffix)
+        end
         eessi_repo = "/cvmfs/riscv.eessi.io"
-        eessi_prefix = pathJoin(eessi_repo, "versions", eessi_version)
+        eessi_prefix = pathJoin(eessi_repo, "versions", eessi_version .. eessi_software_layer_version_suffix)
         eessi_compat_prefix = pathJoin(eessi_prefix, "compat")
         if mode() == "load" then
             LmodMessage("RISC-V architecture detected, but there is no RISC-V support yet in the production repository.\n" ..
@@ -139,6 +144,8 @@ prepend_path("PATH", pathJoin(eessi_eprefix, "bin"))
 eessiDebug("Adding " .. pathJoin(eessi_eprefix, "bin") .. " to PATH")
 prepend_path("PATH", pathJoin(eessi_eprefix, "usr", "bin"))
 eessiDebug("Adding " .. pathJoin(eessi_eprefix, "usr", "bin") .. " to PATH")
+setenv("EESSI_SOFTWARE_LAYER_VERSION_SUFFIX", eessi_software_layer_version_suffix)
+eessiDebug("Setting EESSI_SOFTWARE_LAYER_VERSION_SUFFIX to " .. eessi_software_layer_version_suffix)
 setenv("EESSI_SOFTWARE_PATH", eessi_software_path)
 eessiDebug("Setting EESSI_SOFTWARE_PATH to " .. eessi_software_path)
 setenv("EESSI_MODULEPATH", eessi_module_path)