Channel waveguides based on a polymer, 6-fluorinated-dianhydride/epoxy, which is actively doped with a Nd complex, $\mathrm{Nd}{\left(\text{thenoyltrifluoroacetone}\right)}_3$ 1,10-phenanthroline, are fabricated by a simple and reproducible procedure, spin coating a photodefinable cladding polymer onto a thermally oxidized silicon wafer, photopatterning, backfilling with the active core polymer, and spin coating with an upper cladding layer. Photoluminescence at $1060\mathrm{nm}$ from the ${\mathrm{Nd}}^{3+}$ ions with a lifetime of $130\mu \mathrm{s}$ is observed. Optical gain at $1060\mathrm{nm}$ is demonstrated in channel waveguides with different ${\mathrm{Nd}}^{3+}$ concentrations. By accounting for the waveguide loss of $0.1\mathrm{dB}∕\mathrm{cm}$ , an internal net gain of $8\mathrm{dB}$ is demonstrated for a $5.6\text{-}\mathrm{cm}$ -long channel waveguide amplifier. Owing to the nature of the ${\mathrm{Nd}}^{3+}$ complex, energy-transfer upconversion affects the gain only at ${\mathrm{Nd}}^{3+}$ concentrations above $1\times {10}^{20}{\mathrm{cm}}^{-3}$ .